Trust Me (Draco Malfoy)
by Love4Socks
Summary: Jasmine Gold is a sixth year student at Hogwarts, a popular, beautiful, brunette Slytherin. Although her life isn't perfect she has it much better then some others, which she will soon discover in a way that she would never have imagined. Dark things lie
1. Chapter 1

I sit on the train with Dean Thomas, one of my best friends, and his girlfriend, Ginny Weasley. It's Dean and I's sixth year, but to be honest I kind of want to leave now, I've simply had enough. Seamus Finnigan enters the carriage.

"Been looking for you lot everywhere." He says, with his Irish tongue.

"Well we didn't go far." Dean replies.

Seamus takes a seat next to Dean and opposite me, he smiles.

"You're looking good this year, Jas."

This is me, Jas, Jasmine Gold. Like I said, Hogwarts, Sixth Year. 5'3, brown hair, green eyes, pure-blood, Slytherin.

"Shame your green robes ruin you." He says.

He's only joking of course, we're friends, to be honest I'm friends with most of the Gryffindors, and Slytherins, some Ravenclaws and maybe a couple of Hufflepuffs. Unlike most of the Slytherins, I'm not hated by anyone, well apart from one person, Draco Malfoy, but he's a total dick and his father's a death eater, so I really don't care.

Hogwarts slowly comes into view and the Scarlett train come to a stop. Dean, Seamus, Ginny and I all get off quickly and make it to a carriage before other people do.

I see, Ron and Hermione, friends. They usually have a third member but currently the whereabouts of him is unknown. The two get on a carriage a couple away from ours.

Slowly, we ride up to the castle, and get off again.

"Does anyone else feel a little on edge?" Dean asks as we walk up to the gate, linking arms with Ginny.

"It seems like something's going on, might be to do with You-Know-Who." Seamus whispers as we all approach Professor Flitwick.

"Names please," He says looking up at the four of us.

"Sir?" I say back, "You know us."

He just looks at us again and then over to the luggage and back to us, "Name?"

The four of us individually speak our names, before heading inside the castle.

"You're right, Seamus, it's You-Know-You, something's going on." I say, and Seamus nods.

The annoying thing about getting to the great hall is that I have to sit with the Slytherins, don't get me wrong some of them are great fun, others are just... I don't even know what to say.

As I part from my two favourite boys (and Ginny, I'm not forgetting Ginny) and I am greeted by another, Blaise Zabini.

"Jasmine! What up my sweet?" He stands to hug me before I take a seat next to him. "How's the Gryffindors? How are you? Good journey?"

"Good, Good, and yes," I say and he smiles.

Pansy Parkinson, turns around also and gives me a slight smile, before talking to someone else.

"Dunno where Draco is, thinks she's worring though."

Oh yeah, Pansy is Draco's, 'Girlfriend', but I'd probably say more like, bitch, because Draco only wants her when he's angry or just wants sex in general, a contributing factor to why he's a dick.

Speaking of the dick, here he is.

Draco sits down on the bench, avoiding my eyes, strange; he usually says a sarcastic comment every time we meet. But never mind, foods on the table and I'm starving.

Dumbledore's just said something about Voldemort or 'Tom Riddle', people look a little freaked out, especially the first years.

"Coming common room?" Blaise asks, Dumbledore has told us to go to bed.

I get up from my seat, "In a minute, I'm going to the Gryffindors." And with that, I'm off to their table, a lot of them have already left but the people I want to speak to are still there.

"Oh, Jas, hey," Ginny greets me first and the rest turn around.

Harry's face is covered in blood, "What happened to you?" I ask.

"Long story." He says.

I nod, "So, about what Dumbledore just said, I assume you have to do something."

"Of course, it's only natural, when trouble brews, Harry is there. And there definitely is trouble, not just Voldemort."

"What?" I'm puzzled.

Harry looks over at Ron and Hermione, and Hermione sighs, "Harry thinks Draco is a death eater."

"Seriously?" I look at Harry.

"I know it's crazy isn't it." Ron pipes up.

"No." I say. They all look at me. "His dads a death eater, a loyal follower, also, Malfoy's acting different, distant from everyone, he hardly spoke a word during dinner."

"Not even Pansy?" Ron asks.

"Not even Pansy." I reply

"He's got to be then, you can tell." Harry says looking down at his plate.

Ron shakes his head, "This doesn't prove a thing, maybe he's just going through a rough patch in his relationship, or maybe its teen drama of some sort."

"Or maybe he's a death eater," Harry looks at up at Ron and says.

"Okay, but how do we prove that, even to ourselves, we don't really know for certain, someone needs to see it." Her voice goes quiet, "The mark."

We are all silent for a moment, until I have a brilliant, but terrible idea.

"I'll do it." They look at me, "I'm a Slytherin, he's a Slytherin, I'll get know him, more than I do already, gain his trust?"

"One slight fault, he hates you." Ron says.

"No, it could work." Hermione says, "Harry?"

Harry sits there for a moment, thinking about it, "I guess you could try, if you're up for it?"

I smile a cocky smile, "I'll see you guys in the morning." I say before heading to the dungeons.

I step into the common room, it's almost completely deserted apart from the couple in the corner and... Him, alone at a desk.

I walk towards him, not entirely sure on what I'm about to say, " Malfoy." That's it, that's all I go for, he turns around.

"Gold? What do you want?" He questions me, there's a slight look of suspicion on his face but he mostly looks like he doesn't care.

"It might sound crazy, but I saw that you weren't particularly happy earlier, so I-"

"Came to talk to me about it?" He cuts me off, "I don't need to talk to anyone, especially not you."

Why is he like this all the time?! "You don't have to be a dick you know, I'm being nice to you, I can tell something's up, I'm not stupid."

He gets up from the chair and I feel slightly intimidated as he towers over me, "You can tell? Please, you can't tell shit, and even if there was something up, I'm not sure why I would you. I mean, there are a lot of none backstabbing Slytherins that I could talk to... if I wanted."

That takes me back, first year, Draco explained to me why I'm not a 'true Slytherin' and from that moment, hated me, it was the Gryffindors.

"Okay, I get it. But you do realise, that a lot of the Slytherins are actually quiet friendly with Gryffindors." I say, as though he's going to care.

"There is 'quite friendly' with the Gryffindors, and then there's you." He spits the 'You', before pushing past me and walking away to his dorm room.

It seems my task is going to be harder than I thought.


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning I wake up late, so I have to skip breakfast and rush to Potions class. I get there just as everyone is pilling in.

"Where were you this morning?" Hermione says appearing next to me.

"Slept in didn't I?"

"Go to bed earlier then."

We stand in a group with the other students taking the class; Dean and Seamus are there, so I stand with them as Hermione stands at the very front. I look around and spot Draco; he turns slightly and catches my eyes, but looks away again, quickly. Blaise is with him and his two weird friends, Crabbe and Goyle. Professor Slughorn stands at the front, and begins talking; it's weird because I'm use to Snape teaching potions but he's now in Dark Arts. He goes on about the potions in the room, most of which I already knew all about, potions is my best subject.

Next thing we know, Harry and Ron come crashing into the room, Slughorn looked more than delighted. He tells them to get books from the cupboard.

Next, he starts speaking about a love potion, the most powerful in the world. Hermione steps up, she knows all about it, apparently.

"Might have to smuggle you one of those, Jas," Seamus whispers from behind me.

I laugh lightly, I know he's only joking, partly anyway.

Katie then decides to ask Slughorn about another potion on the table. He says it's called Felix Felicis, or Liquid Luck. It sounds amazing, it could really help me out in getting Draco to confess, but the only way we can get it is by brewing a perfect Draught of Living Death. Soon, we're off.

I stand at a table with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Done it yet?" Ron asks.

"Give her time, Ronald." Hermione snaps back at him, getting started with the potion.

"I'm working on it; he's hard to get through to though. He's being very defensive."

Harry looks up, "Sure sign then?"

I shrug, "It's hard to tell."

I start attempting to brew the potion, as does everyone else. It's advanced, seems too advanced, I don't think I'll be getting any Liquid Luck today.

Time passes quickly as everyone tries hard to brew the potion, Ron turns to me, it seems like he's given up.

"Jas, what do you think about Dean, dating my sister?" He says with a serious face.

I look up at him a little confused, I'm not sure what to say, "Err... they seem fairly happy I guess."

"No, I mean, do you think it's appropriate?"

"Ron, I really don't know."

"Doe's Dean talk her about her lot? Does he tell you what goes on between them? Have you seen anything that seems inappropriate?"

I look at him for a while, puzzled. "No, he doesn't really say much about it. They hold hands I guess, but I've never seen them, like, making out or anything."

He seems disgusted with what I just said, but he nods. "I just worry."

"She's you're little sister, so I can understand that."

Ron doesn't say much else as he throws things into his cauldron, hoping for the best. I don't even try. I look round the room; Hermione's hair is frizzier than ever, Seamus' potion has exploded and his face is now black, Crabbe's tongs have melted, and everyone looks a little frustrated. I look at Draco who's on the opposite side of the room; he's given up too, and is leaning on the table looking into the cauldron. How the hell am I going to get through to him? It's literally impossible.

Harry wins, of course he does. Because Harry always wins, and quite frankly, it's annoying. He gets given the liquid luck and the lesson is over. I leave first hoping to catch Draco when he finally comes out of the room too. I swear he takes an extra 5 minutes to come out, but when he does I grab him.

"Just hear me out, please." I say to him, letting go of his arm.

He stands, listening.

"Look, I know you don't like me, because of the Gryffindor situation, but I'm still a Slytherin, and you know that-"

"What the hell are you-" He cuts in but I cut in again.

"I just want to clear things up, with us. I mean, I know you don't like _them_ , but is that really reason to hate me too? Blaise likes me, Pansy, tolerates me." I say, bloody Pansy.

"Blaise only likes you because you slept with him." He says.

"No, no, he liked me before that, we were friends before then." I reply, "Draco."

He looks shocked when I say his name; I never say his first name, not to him.

"Why can't you just get to know me? Then, I'll let you judge me however you want."

"Why do care all of a sudden?" He questions, making me think of a quick answer.

"It's not all of a sudden; it's annoyed me for years now, that you hate me. Because I know I never did anything to you, and I just didn't understand why you judged me so harshly all the time. The other Slytherins were nice, they didn't care I was, well still am, friends with the Gryffindors, but it seemed to bother to you so much. You don't really know me, and to be honest, I think we could get on if you gave it chance."

He looks blankly at me, "I didn't need the sob story, but fine, I'll... get to know you."

Wow, that works surprising well, considering it was utter bull crap.

"Okay, cool. I'll see you around then." I say, sounding really awkward. Draco nods and we then go our separate ways.

The day goes fairly quickly, I have a few free periods which I mainly just spend in the great hall studying for my other subjects. I'm still in the great hall last period when Ron takes a seat opposite me.

"Ron?" I say.

"Hey." He bluntly says, he sounds worried or nervous.

"You okay?" I ask him.

He takes a deep breath, "No... I'm nervous. Quidditch trials, I don't think I want to do them."

"Ron, you've been excited about them for ages, I know for a fact you've been practicing over summer."

"Yeah, I know. It's just different, I've heard other people talking about trials and I don't think I'll beat them, they seem to know what they're talking about." He stops talking, I'm not sure what to say, but soon he carries on. "How do you do it? You never seem nervous about trials, you always make the team."

"The Slytherin team." I say, "I think a lot of the house don't really care for Quidditch that much."

"But, still. You must get somewhat nervous?"

I shake my head, "Not really."

Ron looks surprised at me, but slightly sad at the same time.

"I'm sorry, Ron. I'm not sure what to say. Do your best I suppose, that's all you can do."

He nods and takes out some parchment from his bag, it's got things all to do with Quidditch on it, he'd made it himself, looks like the really wants to make that team. Luckily for me, I didn't have trials, I was on the team as a permanent until I finished school or dropped out. I'm a Chaser, its okay, but I wouldn't say it something I really cared about it. I mean I like it, Quidditch, and I don't drop out because, well, it's something to do, but I wouldn't be sad if I was kicked off the team for whatever reason. Anyway...

I leave Ron eventually and start heading back towards the common room. As I'm heading down the corridor, I hear footsteps coming my way. For some reason, I freak and hide around the corner. As I stay in my hiding stop, a familiar figure faces the wall. Draco. He looks suspicious, which he has every right to when a door appears on the once door less wall. This could only be the room of requirement, but my question now is, what does he require? I watch as the door sinks back into the wall, I'm not telling Harry about this, I'll keep everything secret until I know for sure.

Blaise is by himself in the common room, he's lying on the sofa with his eyes closed. I head over there, take seat opposite him. He must really be asleep because he doesn't look up, not for good 5 to 10 minutes at least.

"Oh, hey, Jas." He sits up when he sees me, "How long of you been there?"

I shake my head, "Not long."

"Been watching me sleep again? He stands up and walks over to where I'm sitting, before taking a seat next to me. "It's okay though, you can watch me sleep whenever you want." He smiles.

"You're weird right now, have you been drinking?" I ask, I know he has stash in his dorm.

"Not since 6." He says.

It's 6:30 now.

He puts his arm around me.

"Wow, you're really drunk." I say.

"No I'm not." It's now I notice the slurring tone in his voice. "Hey, remember that time I took you to the Yule Ball? And after that, we slept together."

Oh no, "Yes, I remember."

He smiles, "How would feel about doing that again, as in the sleeping together part?"

"Blaise, don't be stupid, it's not happening and you wouldn't of even asked if you hadn't drunk so much."

"I'm not drunk, I swear." He comes closer to my face; I can smell the liquor on his breath, "Just kiss me, for old times' sake." He puts his lips onto mine and I push him away immediately.

"Blaise!" I stand up, he stands up too.

"Jas, please, I'm not asking for much." He grabs my arm.

"You're drunk Blaise, stop it."

He doesn't listen to me he goes in for a kiss again, but this time I don't have to push him off, as someone else does it for me. Next thing I know, Blaise is not the ground, with Draco on top of him, pinning him down and shouting in his face.

"What the hell are you doing!?" He spits. "She said stop!"

What the hell is happening?

"Draco, get off him. He's drunk; he doesn't know what he's doing." I tell him.

Resentfully, he gets off of him and stands back up, leaving Blaise on the ground. I notice Blaise has a small cut on his cheek, I must have missed Draco hit him.

"You want to be careful with him; he's not that great you know." Draco says to me.

I nod, "Thanks for the advice."

He doesn't say anything; he just looks at me and then turns to walk away.

"Hey, Draco." He looks again, "When did you want to start that getting to know me thing? I smile.

"It happens when it happens."


	3. Chapter 3

School drags for the next few days, not much happens at all. Blaise has apologised for his inexcusable behaviour, and I forgave him. Dean has been off with Ginny, a lot, so I have seen much of him.

I now sit in Potions class, the lesson is just ending.

"Miss Gold?" Slughorn calls as I attempt to leave the room.

"Professor?" I match is tone.

"I just wanted to invite you to my dinner party, I use to have one every year, with a few select students? What do you say?"

"I'd love to, Sir. It sounds wonderful." I say.

"Great, I'll send you an owl."

I nod, "Thank you, professor." I leave the room slowly in case he had anything else to say, he doesn't.

I sit at the Slytherin table for dinner; Blaise is next me and Draco opposite him. I think Draco and Pansy have officially broken up. She looks angry at the other end of the table, and her friends are looking at Draco as though they want to kill him.

"She's happy." I say without thinking.

Draco just looks at me, not amused.

After a weird 2 minutes of silence, Draco finally decides to speak.

"Okay, personal and family. That's what I want to know about you, now." He says.

"Oh, it's happening now? Okay, cool." I think for a moment. "Well, my full name is Jasmine Octavia Gold, Pureblood. I live with my wizard father, Augustus Gold and my witch mother, Nancy Gold. I have one older sister called Anastasia Gold and a pet owl called Nor."

He nods, "What house were they?"

"Ravenclaw, all of them."

He looks puzzled, "Bet your parents were happy with you then."

"They weren't, but they learnt they had to be."

That will always hurt me, the fact my parents practically disowned me when I was put into Slytherin, they didn't let me come home for the entire first year, in fear, 'I would hurt them.' Even when I was finally home and they saw that I hadn't changed, things were still different, there was tension, my mother use to cry. At that age I didn't know it was such a big deal. Third year, I realised the power of the Slytherins and how evil they could be, then it dawned it me. I'll never be my parent's perfect child.

We speed through dinner after that, and I soon find myself wondering back to the common room with Draco.

"Are you okay? With Pansy I mean?" Maybe I shouldn't, "I know, sorry, it's not my place to ask."

"Don't worry, no, Pansy and I just isn't working, clearly. She's very clingy and I've got other things to be dealing with anyway." He drops it, just like that, like it's no big deal. It's clear that he really didn't care about her, ever.

"Other things?" I say.

"Yes, other things, family things."

I nod.

"Getting to know you is the thing now, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. Do feel like you hate me less yet?"

"Mildly. You're still not great. Although, I do appreciate you sitting with the Slytherins instead of the Gryffindors this evening." He says.

"Anything to make to happy." I joke.

"Really? I'll have to test this theory more then."

I smile and he half smiles. It's actually working; he's getting to know me. I've made him half smile; this is ground breaking stuff.

"I can't do it!" I shout at Professor Flitwick, as he tries to teach me to turn vinegar into wine.

"You're not trying, Miss Gold. You got an Outstanding in your O.W.L's, so I know you are capable of this."

I twirl my wand about, trying to force the right things to happen, they don't. Flitwick has his focus on another student so I decide to just sit and not do it.

"Going well?" Hermione asks, taking a seat next to me.

"It's impossible."

She pushes over her goblet to in front of me, in it there is half a glass of a dark coloured wine.

"How?" I say, astonished.

"Just keep trying; it's not that hard... Anyway, I wanted to ask you about Malfoy, what's happening?"

I question whether to tell her about the room of requirement, but I decide against it, "It's going okay. But he doesn't fully trust me yet."

"I get it if you don't want to do this anymore." She says.

"If I don't want to do it anymore? Hermione, this was my idea, I'm not backing out of it now. He's talking to me like a normal person, and that's big improvement then what our relationship was like before hand."

She nods, "Okay, fine. I was just saying, just in case. I mean... does the thought that he might be a , you know, not scare you? You're having to spend a lot of time with him and if he is what we think he is, he's dangerous."

"No, I'm not scared, not of him. I don't think he's really capable of any of that death eater stuff."

We sit in silence until the class is over. Potions is our next class, so I walk there with Hermione.

"I'm gonna sit with the Slytherins." I say to her.

"Good luck." She replys.

I sit down in the seat Pansy usually sits in as I can see her over on a table with people such as Lavender Brown. Crabbe and Goyle are already on this table as well, they look at me, confused, but they don't say a word. Professor Slughorn takes his place at the front of the class, just as Blaise and Draco walk in.

"Oh, a little late. Not to worry, takes your seats." Slughorn says.

Blaise and Draco walk over to the table, Blaise sits down quickly, but Draco is a little taken aback when he sees me sitting in Pansy's spot. However, he sits down next to me quickly, not to interrupt the lesson further.

"Poison antidotes!" Slughorn shouts, before writing it on the blackboard behind him.

"Why are you sitting here?" Draco whispers.

"Am I not allowed?" I whisper back.

"Common poison antidotes, these simply counteract ordinary poisons." Slughorn writes on the board again.

"It's fine." Draco says.

"By common poisons I mostly mean, creature bites and stings." Back to Slughorn speaking. "This is beginners stuff, but we're starting basic today. Find your recipes on page 100, any question? No? begin."

This really is beginners stuff; I've brewed this antidote many times before.

"Okay, next question time." Draco says while we begin to start the potion process. "What's your aim, after school is over?"

"Well, the plan is to work in the ministry, in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, probably." I look up at him, death eaters would react when the ministry is mentioned, but Draco doesn't.

"So, you want to be a nurse?" He says.

"I guess you could call it that."

I finish brewing my antidote in no time; Slughorn checks it and says that it's perfect. He then moves on to Blaise, they end up having a rather long conversation.

"Guess what?" Blaise says after Slughorn leaves the table. "I've just been invited to Slughorns dinner party."

"Don't get too excited." I say, "He already asked me as well."

"Oh, Draco?" Blaise questions him.

"Piss off." He replies.

Later, Draco and I sit in the common. It's late, so everyone else is in bed. Draco has decided it's time for an extended version of getting to know me.

"Right, tell me about your best friend, who are they and why?" He asks.

"My best friend...okay, Dean Thomas."

"Really?" he doesn't seem too disgusted with my choice. "You don't seem to hang out with him that much, not lately anyway."

"No, because he's dating Ginny Weasley and he's spending a lot of time with her. But he's still my best friend. We've known each other since we were about 4, so I guess that's why."

"Okay then. Going back to your family, you said you had a sister... Anastasia."

"Yes, Ana, she 22. She left Hogwarts at 16 and ran away with her boyfriend. She came back again, home I mean, after about a month. They broke up. She didn't come back to Hogwarts; she didn't really like it to be honest. After she got Outstanding in all but 1 of her subjects in her O.W.L's she decided she didn't really need to go back. Which I can understand now. She's moved away again now though, with a new man, Geoff, they live by the sea. They've sent me letters but I've never visited. She's been gone for 4 years now."

Draco sits there for a moment, taking in all the information about my sister, she is kind of complicated.

"How do your parents fell about that?" He asks.

"They don't care; they don't talk about her, ever. She was actually their 'Miss Perfect' until she left school and ran off. The next two years weren't great. I was in Slytherin, Ana messed up her education, apparently, the parents weren't happy. That's why she left, that's why she hasn't come back."

"How did you feel, when you were put into Slytherin?" He asks, what a weird question.

"Err... at first I didn't feel anything, it's was just a house. I guess when I started to receive letters from my parents asking me what I had done, and why I was in the house, it felt a little bad, I was upset, because my parents weren't happy." These things seem slightly personal to be telling Draco, but he seems to be listening and possibly even caring. "Do you remember it? When I was put into Slytherin?" I ask him a question this time.

"Yes, you were the first person to be called up, I remember it clearly." He says.

"What did you think of me then?" What am I doing right now?

He thinks for a moment, "Honestly? I thought we were going to get on really well, I remember thinking you were pretty, you see, so aged 11, I had this idea in my head that we would end up dating and be the kind of king and queen of the school. Weird, huh?"

I nod, and give a small smile, I can't help but imagine what that would of been like, if it actually turned out that way.

"That's enough for tonight." Draco says, breaking my thought process and standing up.

"Oh, okay, cool."

"I'll see you tomorrow then, night."

"Night." I say.


	4. Chapter 4

I wake up Saturday morning, and head for the common room. It's fairly bare, people are probably still in bed. I take a seat on the black leather sofa; I have my Divination book with me so I can do a bit of studying before I head to breakfast.

As I sit there, reading page after page, other students begin to come downstairs. As they do, Draco walks back into the common room, fully dressed; he looks as though he's been up for hours. He doesn't acknowledge me what so ever as he walks past the sofa I'm still sitting on. I let it go before deciding it was time for breakfast. I go back to my dorm again and quickly throw on some leggings, a jumper and some shoes, I then head to the Great Hall.

There are quite a lot of people for this time in the morning; I think people are getting ready to go to Hogsmead. Today, I take a seat next to Dean, he's by himself and there is no sign of Ginny.

"Hey, Dean." I say, grabbing a slice of toast to eat.

"Hey, Jas." He says with a slight sigh.

"Everything okay?" I ask, curiously.

He shrugs, "Ginny and I had an argument, but its okay." He doesn't seem very talkative.

I don't reply as it's clear he doesn't really want to talk. Instead I put some jam on the slice of toast I had previously grabbed.

"Out of curiosity," Dean starts again, "Why are you hanging out with Draco Malfoy?"

Oh right, "It's something to do with Harry, that's all."

He nods; he knows not to carry on asking now, because he knows that he won't get anywhere.

"Are you going to Hogsmead?" I ask him.

"No," he shakes his head. Snape's making me do extra DADA, after what happened yesterday."

"Oh yeah, the fish prank."

"The fish prank." He says. "He contacted my mother as well. She's not happy."

"What time do you have to be there then?"

"12." He says simply.

"Have fun then." I say. Just after I do I see red hair out of the corner of my eye. I turn and see Ginny standing by the entrance of the hall.

"Dean." I say.

He turns to see where I'm looking and sees her too.

"I better go, see you later." He says standing up.

I watch him walk off to meet Ginny, they mutter something to each other and soon Dean's lips are on hers, I look away.

So, what am I gonna do today? I finish my breakfast, and have a glass of pumpkin juice, I could go to Hogsmead, but I don't really feel like it. Instead I start thinking about the conversation I had with Draco about my sister. I haven't spoken to her in ages, and it would be nice to know what she's getting up to lately. It would be nice to see her again. I have my bag with me, so I grab a piece of parchment and a quill, and then I start writing.

 _Hey Ana,_

 _It's your sister Jasmine here. I just wanted to write you, because we haven't spoken in what? A year and half maybe? How are you? What are you up too? I'm guessing you're still with Geoff, how's he?_

 _I miss you, you know. I'd love to see again, if that's even possible. Don't know how our parents would feel about that though. But still, I'd love it if we could, I'd love to see you and Geoff again. And I'd love to finally see your house; do you still live in the same one? Are you even on the beach anymore?_

 _By the way, I almost matched you on the O.W.L's, I got all but 2 Outsandings, I used your method of studying._

 _Anyway, please write back, it would be lovely to hear from you again._

 _Hope you're well, Jas x._

I take the letter to the owlery, and find Nor, my owl, and give it to him to take to Ana. He'll find her.

I take a slow walk back down into the main ground of the castle, its cold, the weather is changing as it's soon to be Autumn and then Winter. I head into library, as it's a quite place to study. I need all the studying I can get if I'm gonna to remotely pass any of my N.E.W.T.'s. I'm only taking 4 subjects but it's still quite a lot to take in.

After a good 3 hours of study, I think it's enough. It's also the time that most of the people in Hogsmead have decided to come back to school. For that reason, it's extremely crowded.

As I attempted to push past everyone, I bump into Harry Potter.

"Jasmine." He says. "How are you doing? What's happening with... him." He's pulled me from the crowd of people onto the sidelines of the corridor.

"He's warming to me well; I think I'll be able to find out soon." I say, although I'm not really sure.

"Okay, good, we have to find out soon though, before he does something to hurt anyone"

I nod.

"I've got to go, keep trying okay." He says, rejoining the crowd.

As I watch the people walk past I start to think about what I'm doing. Draco seems to like me now; he actually likes me, to a certain extent at least. If he is a death eater, and if he told me, he'll tell me in confidence, then I'd go and tell the golden trio, Draco would find out it was me and hate me even more then he did before. To be honest, I don't want that to happen. When I first agreed to this I didn't think I'd care about backstabbing Draco at the end, but now I think about it, I don't want to hurt him. He seems like a pretty decent guy, just a bit misunderstood.


	5. Chapter 5

I sit at the table with Blaise Zabini, it's the next day and breakfast. I'm just in the middle of eating my bacon sandwich as Nor flies down onto the table with letter in his beak. No way. I grab it from him and pet him gently before he flies away.

"Who's that from?" Blaise asks, I ignore him completely and open the letter instead.

 _My beautiful sister, Jasmine._

 _Hi there hunny. I'm glad you've started writing again, yes; it has been a while hasn't it. And to be honest I should probably apologise for not writing to you as well. So, I got your letter, obviously. I'm fine, doing really well actually. Geoff and I are still together and he says Hi, and he is also fine. Things are busy at the moment, that's all I can say. We do live in the same house, on the same beach and it's still just as wonderful as it was when we first moved in._

 _I would love for you to visit, as I miss and you too. I know you said that mum and dad wouldn't be happy, but I think you're old enough to start making some of your own decisions. Remember at your age I ran away from home. So, yes. Come to my house please, for Christmas, I think it would be nice to see each other again. The address is on the back of this letter._

 _Hope to see you soon, Anastasia. X_

 _P.S- I told you my study sessions worked._

"Oh my god." I say skimming through the letter a second time just to make sure it is real.

"What?" Blaise asks.

"Ana, it's Ana. She's asked me to come for Christmas."

"You're sister, you two got back in contact again?" He says.

"Yes, I sent her a letter yesterday saying that I wanted to see her again, and she does too, she just said in this letter." I gesture towards the letter that's now down on the table.

"That's great, Jas. It really is." Blaise smiles at me, genuinely happy for me.

I sit at the table still, alone this time; Blaise has left do other things. The great hall is mainly empty, breakfast has cleared away and there's 3 people studying on the opposite side of the hall. I hold my letter from Ana in my hand, re reading it and flipping it to read the address again. I've never been so happy in my life; honestly I couldn't feel more elated. The only thing that brings me down slightly is the fact that our parents are going to freak out when they know what's going on, I feel like going home after this year of school is going to much worse than any other time. But I try my hardest to push that aside and think of the positive.

My sister, I haven't even seen a picture of her for the last 4 years, nor has she of me. I wonder if she looks different, if she has her piercings in, if her hair is still tightly curled. I've changed; I know I have, so I wonder if my look will shock her. She hasn't seen me since I was 12, god this is crazy.

All of my deep thinking has distracted me from normal life; I'm pulled back into reality when a familiar voice is talking to me from the opposite side of the table.

"Jasmine?" He repeats.

"Oh, hey, Draco."

"Okay, so this is probably going to sound really weird but I'm taking you on a walk."

"What?" I ask, confused by what's going on.

"A walk, I haven't got anything to do today so I've decided I'm going to hang out with you, so we're going on a walk." He nods and stands up.

"Where to exactly?" I ask standing up as well.

"Just around the school grounds, thought we could chat on the way too."

I don't reply to him, instead I just follow him out of the hall. I haven't talked to Draco since he said about becoming the King and Queen of the school, which felt awkward at the time, but he seems to have gotten over that. We head out of the castle into the cold but not too harsh wind outside.

"I saw Blaise before I came to see you." Draco says as we walk. "He said you got a letter from your sister, you didn't say you hadn't spoken to her in a year and a half."

I shrug, "I didn't think it was important information to tell you."

"You're spending Christmas with her?" He asks.

"Yes."

"Are you excited?"

"Of course."

He nods, I look at him to see that he's smiling, I smile too.

"What are you doing for Christmas then?" I ask, and his smile fades.

"Err, nothing really, some of the family are coming round but it's nothing special." He looks uncomfortable talking about this, so I drop it.

"Where are you actually taking me? This can't just be a general walk." I ask him, completely changing the subject from before.

"It's where I use to come and chill, I could be alone, it sounds weird, but it's the place where I use to not worry about things. I mean I didn't have that many worries when I was younger, but the few I did have I'd come here to escape them." Wow.

"When you were younger? Do you not come back here anymore?"

"Not really, I find that even though it's the best place, it's still not enough to escape my worries now days." He says casually, but what does that even mean?

Why is he suddenly being like this? I mean I'm glad he's confiding this information in me, but I honestly didn't think he felt that comfortable to do so, not yet at least.

We walk for a little while longer, before coming to a stop. We're next to black lake, and the castle is far in the distance, there's a large oak tree next to the lake, which has thick branches sticking out everywhere.

"It's weird isn't it?" Draco says, "The tree."

I nod.

Draco then starts taking more steps forward until he is standing next to the lowest branch, it's still fairly high up but reachable.

"There's a sort of pit thing in the middle," he says, pointing up into the tree, "covered by the leaves, it's cool." I can see him getting genuinely excited about this large tree, which is not something you'd expect Draco Malfoy to do. As I watch him he grabs onto the first branch and pulls himself up with hardly any effort. Then he reaches his hand down to me, "Come on." He says, I stand for a moment, then I take his hand, it's cold but there's still a slight warmth in it. He pulls me up to where he is.

From there the branches seem to form a staircase structure, so you can just walk up it as long as you keep steady and don't fall. Soon, we are at least 12 feet of the ground, there's still the rest of the tree above us but I can clearly see that this is the 'pit' Draco was talking about. It's basically a naturally grown treehouse, and the branches and leaves above are the roof.

"This is so cool." I say, stepping inside.

Draco sits on the floor, which immediately takes up a lot of the floor space. I sit down next to him.

"You seem to like it here." I say to him.

"I do." He says leaning back on a branch behind him.

"Why'd you bring me here, you said this you use to come here alone, so why'd you bring me?"

He sighs and turns to look at me, "I'm not sure," He shrugs, "I just felt that I should."

I nod, but that's not a proper answer.

"Can I ask you something?" He asks. Oh this should be good. "Why did you sleep with Blaise at the Yule Ball?" What?

"Well why did you sleep with Pansy?"

"I'll answer if you answer." He says.

"Only if you go first." I say.

He nods, "Okay, me and Pansy were dating, even though I didn't like her that much. But we had a good time at the Ball, and afterwards she decided it would be a good idea to, you know. I didn't turn it down of course, it's not every day a girl comes up to you and asks to have sex."

I laugh ever so slightly at his stupid story, but to be honest mines not much better.

"Okay, my turn then. When Blaise asked me to the ball, I thought it was just because he couldn't get anyone else, but I said yes anyway. When we were there we had a really good time, I had a lot of fun and it seemed like he actually really liked me. Then, at the end of the night, it was really late and we were in this empty room, Blaise just kissed me without warning and then he skipped to forth base from there." I also laugh at my own story.

"Do you like him, Blaise?" Draco says, completely throwing comments about my story to the side.

"As a friend, I love him yeah, he's great. But that's it, that's where the feelings stop, I don't think I even fancied him when I slept with him which just makes the story worse."

"You know he really likes you? As in he wants to be with you." Draco says looking at me.

I look back at him, "Well I'm not into him, like at all." I say quietly.

We stay looking at each other for a few seconds, I then watch Draco's eyes travel down to my lips and then back up quickly. I look away before anything happens.

"Yeah, not at all." I say.

We stay in the tree most of the day, talking about random things, Draco asked me some weird questions but I've answered them all the best I can. It's only when the sky starts to darken we decide to get out again.

We both get up of the floor, and start heading down, Draco is in front of me. It's now a lot colder than earlier and the wind is a lot stronger too.

We both get to the last branch and Draco goes first, holding onto the branch as he lowers himself down. This is when I realize I can't get down. I never climbed trees as a child because I could never get out of them again. Even though the drop to the floor isn't far my brain is telling me not to do it.

"I can't do it." I say to Draco, who's now looking up at me from the ground.

"Hold on," He smiles in amusement.

"This isn't funny." I say as he walks over to help me.

"It kind of is. Okay, sit on the branch."

I do as he says and sit down on the branch and hold on for dear life as my feet swing.

"Jasmine, you're going to have to trust me now. I need to you tip forward and reach for my shoulders." He says putting his arms out.

"What?" I say in a small voice.

"I've got you, you won't fall, trust me." He says with a look of seriousness on his face.

At this point, most people in the world wouldn't trust Draco Malfoy, but this is how I am different from those people. I let go of the branch slowly and reach down for his shoulders, I feel myself begin to fall, and then suddenly I do, but almost instantly Draco's hands are on my hips and helping me down. I hold onto his shoulders and then I reach the floor.

"See, I said you could trust me." He says his hands now on my waist from where he'd lowered me down.

I nod, and look up at him, he looks down at me. I watch as his eyes travel to my lips again but this time I don't look away. It starts slow and then all at once his lips are on mine and his kissing me, I kiss back. His arms pull me in closer to him, and I stand on my tiptoes to reach his height better. His lips are warm and soft, and his grip that is on my body is firm and strong, it's the best balance there is.

After what seems like ages, he pulls kiss lips from mine, but keeps his grip. I don't look at him, in fear that I would make this moment awkward, instead I bury my face into his neck and hold him as he holds me too.

"What is this then?" he whispers to me, not letting go of me.

I don't reply, because I don't know what it is, I'm trying hard to remember exactly what just happened.

"We should probably get back to the castle." He says quietly to me, still not letting go.

To be honest, I wish we could just stay here, like this for eternity, but instead I say, "Okay."


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning I have potions first lesson, I'm sitting on a table with Dean and Seamus. Over on the Slytherin table there is no sign of Draco.

I'm still thinking about what happened yesterday, how did that happen? It wasn't long ago that Draco hated me; I just don't understand how it happened. I liked it though, and I think he did too, I hope he did anyway. We didn't talk much while walking back to the castle yesterday, it wasn't awkward as such; it was just strange.

"So where were you yesterday?" Dean says, breaking me out of my daze.

"What? Oh, I was in my common room, studying." I lie.

He looks at me suspiciously, "Sure you were." He says, he can tell I'm lying.

"I was." I push at him.

"Okay then, I believe you." He doesn't.

Dean then engages in conversation with Seamus and leaves me be. The classroom door opens, no else looks except me, it's Draco.

Immediately, his eyes catch mine and I watch as a smirk appears on his face. I break eye contact and look around the room; no one has even noticed him come in. I watch him as he sits down on the Slytherin table, next to Blaise and Goyle; the seat is facing in my direction, so he's still looking at me.

Today's lesson is on Everlasting Elixirs and everyone seems to be thoroughly engaged with the words that Slughorn is saying. Everyone except Draco, and for that reason, me as well.

I try hard to focus on Slughorn but I can see Draco looking at me out of the corner of my eye and it's distracting. Focus on sir, focus on sir, I repeat to myself in my head. I can't help it though, I look over at Draco and he smirks again, so do I before looking away. It seems that Slughorn is not letting us do any practical work today so this lesson is going to be a long one.

At the of the lesson everyone leaves before me as I wanted to ask Slughorn about the dinner party, which I'm now really looking forward too.

I then grab my bag before heading out of the classroom. As I walk a little down the corridor I am grabbed by the wrist, pulled around the corner and then pushed up against the wall.

"Well that was fun." Draco says to me, his hands are pushed against the wall behind me so I can't escape.

"Distracting me from my work is not fun." I look around the corridor slightly to see if anyone is around, there isn't.

Draco seems to catch on to what I'm doing as he says, "You're worried aren't you." He takes his hands away and just stands in front of me instead. "I get why you would be."

"Well… no, it's just." I start to say, but I'm not actually sure what I'm going to say.

"Don't worry about it; I can keep it how it is now if that's what you want, although I don't even know what it is now." He says.

"What?" I ask, slightly confused about the whole situation.

"I mean, yesterday wasn't nothing, we kissed but it was more than that, I could feel it. It was something that I'd never felt with Pansy before. But whatever it was, I think you felt it too."

I nod.

"I know you won't want people finding out about what happened between us though, and I understand that. I mean, people are already freaking out about that we even hang out. So, anything more than that, it would probably corrupt the school system. But, if you wanted there to be more, then I'm completely game, and I'd keep it a secret, if that's what you want." He seems to have gotten shyer from when this conversation started.

I smile at his sheepish look. "Okay." I say.

He smiles at me, "Cool." He says, trying to brush off the fact that he was even slightly embarrassed. "So we just go with this now, play it cool around everyone but then have intimate make out sessions at the-"

I push my lips onto his and kiss him; his hands are put onto my hips as he steps closer to me. I pull away, "That's the plan." I push him off me, "Crap, defence against the dark arts, Snape is going to kill us." I begin to walk down the corridor.

"No, probably just seriously injure." Draco says, catching up with me.

"Lovely for you to join us." Snape says as Draco and I step into the classroom, "Detention for both of you." He turns back to the board he was writing on as Draco and I take our regular seats.

"Are you okay?" Hermione whispers concerned as I sit next to her.

"Yeah." I nod, "Just talking to him."

I arrive outside Snape's classroom for my detention, as I stand outside I can hear voices on the other side of the door.

"What are you thinking? Do have any idea how important this is!" It's Snape's voice.

I question whether to just skip detention but that will only make it worse, I knock.

It goes deadly silent on the other side of the door, before I here footsteps. The door opens and Snape stands on the other side of it.

"Ah, Miss Gold." He says, I glance into the classroom and see platinum blonde hair sitting at a desk. "You can go, but do not be late to my lessons again."

"Yes, Professor." I say, before he slams the door shut.

What is going on?

I don't stay and eavesdrop, although I would like to know what is going on. Instead I hurry back to the great hall. But, what am I going to do? I have to tell Harry about what is happening, but I can't. There's no way that he can confirm Draco is death eater from that is there? No, I can tell him this.

I spot Harry as soon as I enter the hall, he's alone.

"Jasmine?" He looks at me as I take a seat opposite him, "I thought you had a detention?"

"I did, I went there and Snape told me go."

"How come?" He says, putting his potions book down on the table.

"Draco was there, Snape was shouting at him about something. He said that something was important, I don't know what though." I say.

"What? Okay, I'm going there now-"

"Harry, wait. But Snape-"

"I'll be fine, Jas, it's-"

"But if he catches-"

"It's fine!" Harry says running out of the hall.

Oh no.

"I don't know what was happening." I hear Harry say as I take a seat at breakfast with him, Hermione and Ron.

"Spoken to Draco again yet, Jas?" Harry turns to me and asks.

I shake my head; I haven't even seen him since I knew about his and Snape's 'argument.'

"If Snapes involved then we're bound to find out something soon, if Snape knows then so does Dumbledore, and then Dumbledore might even tell you, Harry." Hermione says.

Harry doesn't reply, nobody does, we all just sit there in silence after that, it's only when it's time for lessons when we think we should leave.

I have Divination, so I head straight to my classroom.

Dracos P.O.V

I keep thinking about what Snape said to me yesterday. He knows about me and Jasmine, and he says that I'm being stupid and not focusing on my mission, he even said it could be dangerous for her, but I don't see how, this has got nothing to do with her.

I sit on my bed in my dorm and think about the mission, how the hell am I going to do this? I know I have too, but I can't think of a way. And I know for sure that it's too late to back out of it now, although I never even had an option in the first place. But now I have other things to think about too, I'm with Jasmine and I really like her and I want this relationship to work out, so I know that I need to put in the effort, however, I also need to complete my mission. Maybe I should just tell her, no I can't, if I do that then I run the risk of losing her. I can't lose her; I only just managed to get her now, and that was the hardest 2 years of my life.

Jasmines P.O.V

The lesson drags on, followed by another dragging lesson, and then another, until I'm finally free again. I haven't seen Draco all day; I'm not even sure where he is.

I take a seat in the Slytherin common room, and just sit, overwhelmed by the amount of information I've had to take in today; anything else and I think my head might explode. But I keep my head up; things are going so well right now. I meeting my sister again, I still have the best friends anyone could ask for and I'm dating Draco Malfoy. The last one is questionable in some people's books, but it works for me.

And speaking of him, finally.

"Draco!" I call to where I see him standing.

"Oh, hey." He seems a little nervous.

"You okay?" I ask, concerned.

He nods, "Yeah, what's up." He sits down next to me on the sofa and gives me a half smile.

"What's up with you, I'm pretty sure that's the question, Snape shouting at you last night, didn't see you the rest of the evening, nor most of today and now your acting weird."

He shakes his head, "I'm fine, trust me. And that thing with Snape was nothing, he was just being Snape. Don't worry about it."

"Well it was enough to get me out of detention, so thanks for that." I laugh lightly. "Although, saying that, I think you might have another one, because you missed today's lesson."

He shrugs, "Snape won't care." He still doesn't look completely calm, there's definitely something up.

"Okay then." I say, not really sure what to say, I want to ask if he's okay again, but I think he might get snappy with me if I do.

"Look, I'm really sorry, but I have to go. I've got something I have to do. I'll see you later, yeah?" He gets up from the chair and doesn't even wait for my answer before he's out of the door. There is no doubt about it now, something is definitely up.

I sit there in the chair, alone once again. I look at my watch, the time is only 4pm, but you know what? I'm going to sleep. There's just too much to think about and my brain is overloading.


	7. Chapter 7

Time passes quickly, and soon it's Winter and there's snow covering the ground outside. Draco still hasn't told me what's going on with him. And Harry is getting no further into his investigation of finding out whether Draco is a death eater, I've stopped trying but I haven't told Harry yet. And if Draco decides to reveal to me that he is in fact a death eater, if he is one that is, then I shall be quiet about it, as I'm not really one to snitch. Speaking of Draco, still no one has found out about us, which I'm glad about. We do hang out a lot, which is nice, but he still doesn't tell me the things I want to know, but then again, I have to respect his privacy.

Anyway, I'm very excited now, as it's not long until Slughorns dinner party, and then Christmas with my sister! I think everyone must be sick of me now, because I keep going on about it. I've bought my sister (and Geoff) a present, it's nothing big though, it's some scented candles and some really pretty holders to put them in. I'm hoping my sister still likes scented candles, I know she did when she use to live at home.

"Not long now." Blaise laughs as he comes to sit down with me.

"Not long." I say, he's referring to my sister, I said I kept going on about it.

"What are you going to do, do you recon?" He asks.

"I don't know. Christmas and then new year. Then I'll probably come back to school and expect angry letters from my parents."

I laugh and so does Blaise. He has experienced the wrath of my parents first hand. After the Yule Ball, my parents found out about my encounter with Blaise, they picked me up from Kings Cross at the end of year, Blaise was with me and my parents basically attacked him. My dad had to be physically restrained. It was awful but hilarious at the same time.

"Do you know what you're wearing to Slughorns dinner?" Blaise asks.

"Don't know, haven't really given the outfit much though. I was just going to wear something random, I didn't know it was a formal occasion."

"Oh, I'm not sure it is, but I think we still have to dress nice."

"I'll start looking then." I say.

"You going to Hogsmead today?" Blaise asks.

"Yeah, I'm going with Dean, Ginny and Seamus. We're just going to have a few drinks in The Three Broomsticks." This reminds me, I should probably be getting ready to meet up with them soon. "Are you going?"

"Yeah, Goyle wants to show me something there, so I said he'd go with him. No idea what it, but Goyle's excited so it's probably really weird."

I nod, "Anyway, I better go know you've reminded me. Have to meet up with up with the Gryffindors haven't I? I'll see you soon." I say getting up from the chair.

"Okay, cool. See you later."

We arrive at The Three Broomsticks; it's warm inside which is nice as it shields us from the harsh weather outside.

"I'll get the Butterbeers in." Dean says, as Ginny, Seamus and I head for a table.

The room is crowed, with little seating space left, but we manage to find ourselves a booth to sit in and relax for a while.

Dean returns to the table quickly, having ordered us drinks already. He sits next to Ginny and puts his arm around her, she smiles up at him. They've been arguing lately so it's nice to see them like this.

"So, Christmas gifts?" Dean says. "What does everybody want? I'm getting mine back in Muggle town, so I'll have to mail whatever it is."

Ginny is the least cultured on Muggle things here. So anything that Dean gets her will most likely be impressive. Seamus is a half blood, so he understands the Muggle world well. And although I'm Pure Blood like Ginny, my parents insists that we live in the Muggle world and respect their ways of life.

"I'm not fussed, Dean. You don't even have to get me anything." Ginny says.

"Nope, I'm getting you all something, if you don't know now, I'll give you time to think about it. But I want answer, sooner the better."

We nod at him. The waiter comes and puts our drinks on the table.

"Thank you." I say to him.

It's then when I see Harry, Hermione and Ron come in to sit down; I don't watch them for too long as Seamus is talking to me.

"What do think life after Hogwarts will be like?" He says. "I mean, we'll have to start going to magic work and stuff, as in jobs in magic, just seems like it would be a little different from school, don't you think?"

"I guess." I say.

"Or not, we're already living with magic, so why would it be so different?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, surely magic work will just be a focus on one subject, so maybe it will kind of be like doing only one lesson." Ginny adds.

"Doing one lesson for the rest of your life." I say.

Seamus looks confused, buts nods and smiles anyway.

"It's going to get real though isn't it?" Dean says, after the conversation had more or less died.

"What do you mean?" I say.

"You-Know-Who, he's back isn't he, so something's bound to happen, wouldn't surprise me if he's planned an attack already to be honest."

Ginny, Seamus and I all look at Dean with slight shock.

"Yeah, but it's positive thinking we need right now, Dean." I smile at him, it's a smile that tells him to shut up and he understands it.

"You're right. More drinks?" He says, I look down to find that my glass is already empty.

Seamus and I decide to leave after about another hour, leaving Dean and Ginny by themselves. We are on route back to the castle when we see 4 people standing in the distance. Hagrid is there as well, holding someone in his arms.

"Let's stay here; I don't want to get caught up in that." Seamus says.

I agree so we stay back for a while, taking shelter under a nearby tree. We see Hogwarts professors turn up and take something from the ground with great caution. The four people standing by it then start walking back to the castle. I've made the people out to be, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie Bells friend, Leanne.

"What do you recon that was?" Seamus asks.

"I don't know, but it wasn't good that's for sure."

We head back to the castle, trying to shield ourselves from the harsh weather along the way.

When we are back in the castle, Seamus and I go our separate ways, as I am desperate to find the golden trio. As I walk along the corridor, Snape walks past me quickly, clearly in a rush. I follow after him, hoping that he'll lead me to where I need to go. Luckily, he does.

He walks through the door and I see them inside, they literally have the worst luck. Whenever something back happens they are always there.

I wait outside the door, I can mumbles from inside, but I can't make out what they are saying.

"It was him." The door opens as Harry says this to the other two. "Jasmine?" He turns and sees me.

"Hey, I saw you guys earlier, what happened?"

"Let's walk." Hermione says.

We begin to walk and Harry starts to talk again, "Katie Bell was cursed, by a necklace. She picked it up at the three broomsticks, and was going to deliver it to Dumbledore. Someone in this school is trying to kill him, Jas. And I think you can guess who."

It can't be true. "Really? How can you be sure it's him?"

"I saw him going into the toilets, when we were at the three broomsticks." Harry says.

"I still don't think you should have accused him like that though, Harry." Hermione says. "Especially when Snape was there."

Harry snapes his focus over to Hermione, "That's why I did it, to get a reaction from him. He knows what Malfoy is up too, and I just thought-"

"I know what you thought, Harry. But I still don't think we should jump to any conclusions." Hermione cuts him of by saying.

Harry turns to me, hoping I would defend him.

I shrug; I'm not sure what to think anymore. I think Harry has a point, but I don't think jumping to conclusions is wise either.

"Fine, I'm going to study." Harry says when we reach the outside of the Gryffindor common room. He hurries inside leaving Ron and Hermione with me.

"Looks like he's going to be unhappy for a while now." Hermione says. "Best just to leave him I think." She says to both Ron and I.

"I better go too." I say to them.

"Okay, see you later, Jas. Stay safe." Hermione says.

Both she and Ron then go into their common room. Although, Hermione doesn't want to jump to conclusions, she still says 'stay safe' as though Draco is a death eater. Speaking of Draco, I better go and find him.

I check the common room first and ask Blaise if he has seen him, he tells me that he saw him heading head of the common room about 10 minutes ago. So I leave again, for some reason I head the way of the great hall. The doors are closed, but with a simple unlocking charm I open them and slip inside. I don't how I knew he'd be here, I just had a feeling, and I was right. I see him sitting by himself at the Slytherin table; he's looking down at the table. I question whether to just leave him be, but I don't. I walk over to him, he doesn't look at me. Even when I sit next to him, he still doesn't look at me.

"Draco?" I ask, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He doesn't respond.

"Draco, please talk to me." I nudge him a little, his attitude right now is worrying me, it's like he knows what I'm about to ask him. "I need to talk to you about someone."

He doesn't respond, so I carry on, "Katie Bell got cursed."

He doesn't react.

"Harry thinks it was you who cursed her."

The fact he still just sits there is worrying me a lot.

"Please, Draco?" I whisper, "Just talk to me."

"I didn't curse Katie Bell." He says, his voice hoarse.

I want to believe him, but I'm not sure I do. I don't say anything to him; we just sit in silence instead.


	8. Chapter 8

The day of Slughorns dinner party has arrived, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm meeting Blaise in the common room in an hour, and we are going to walk there together. However, I am still to get ready. I planned my outfit a while ago, but no I don't think I want to wear it. So I'm rummaging through the wardrobe to find something else. Eventually, I find a navy blue dress that I think is appropriate for the occasion. I lay it out on my bed, before proceeding to do my hair and makeup. Soon I am completely ready.

I walk into the common room to find Blaise waiting for me in his black suit.

"Ah, Miss Gold. You took your time." Blaise says to me. "You look nice though."

"Thank you, so do you. Now let's go, before we are late." I say.

"Have fun." Draco says, he's sitting on the sofa watching me.

I give him a small smile, and he tries too. Then Blaise and I leave and head for dinner.

We arrive just as everyone is taking their seats.

"Hello!" Slughorns says, happily to us. "Miss Gold, Mr Zabini. Please, take a seat."

Blaise sits down first and I take a seat next to him. There's less people here then I thought there would be, which I guess is a nice thing.

We begin to eat and then conversations about ourselves and our family come to play.

Slughorn is then talking about former members of the Slug Club, he acknowledges Harry's mother, Harry smiles at the thought of her.

The meal lasts a while, I know for a fact that Ginny was suppose to be attending, but there is currently no sign of her, and we are already eating dinner.

Hermione tells the group about her parents being dentists, but I'm guessing nobody understands what she is going on about, because when she says her father needed 10 stitches nobody laughs. I do, just to break the tension, but it seems to get worse.

The door suddenly opens, revealing Ginny. She apologises for being late and walks into the room. As she does I see her eyes, they are red, but dark around the outside, she had been crying. Oh Dean.

My thoughts are interrupted by Harry making a sudden stand, all eyes are on him. Hermione pulls him back down. Ginny sits also, I look over at her, but she refuses to look my way. Oh dear, this fight was bad one. I wonder how Dean is taking it?

Slughorn does his best to carry on the conversations after that, but there is very strong tension in the room.

And by the time it's over, I'm glad to go back to the common room.

"Well that was fun." Blaise says sarcastically.

"Did you see Ginny's eyes though? She must have been crying for ages."

"Dean is your friend; go ask him what he did. But it seemed like a pretty dickish move whatever it was."

We arrive back at the common room, it's late and nobody is in here.

"Better go to bed then. Quidditch tomorrow." Blaise says.

I nod, "Yep, I know. See you in the morning."

The next day, I wake up early, and get ready for the match. I know how brutal Quidditch can be so I need to be well prepared. Ron's the keeper for Gryffindor today, so Slytherin are probably going to win by a lot, or lose by a lot, depending on how much faith Ron has in himself this morning.

It's not a lot, I walk into the great hall and see him immediately, and he looks petrified. I go over there.

"Ready, Ron?" He looks up startled.

"No, I don't want to do it. I've changed my mind, Quidditch isn't for me."

"Oh, Ron, don't worry. I'll tell the boys to go easy on you." I laugh jokingly, "You'll be fine, Ron."

I leave the table and go to my own team; they are working on an attack method.

"You shooting, Jas?" Blaise asks me.

"As best I can." I say, not really caring what's going on. These plans never work, in the end, everyone gets hurt and we either win or lose. That's it.

After a few minutes, I see Harry and Ron stand up, "Guys, let's go." I say to my team.

We watch from the side lines as the seats fill up, I'm excited to play, I think this will go well.

"On your brooms!" Our captain says.

We mount and the gates open, we fly out, despite being the Slytherin team, we get mostly cheers.

"Go for Gold!" Some of the Slytherins call. That's to me personally. I like being liked.

The game begins, I see Ron looking confident, oh god, we've lost already. The Quaffle is thrown to me and fly quickly through everyone, dodging everyone as I go, I make the shot at the lower goal, Ron catches it. Oh shit, we've definitely lost.

Gryffindor are 20 points up, and I have the Quaffle under my arm, I race faster than ever to the other end of the pitch, determined to score. A Gryffindor chaser is flying straight at me and get distracted watching them. I turn is face forward as I see the post Ron is at. His face is scared as I'm heading straight for him, I panic and turn the broom quickly, dropping the Quaffle at the same time. As the broom turns I feel my body slip off of it and soon I'm falling, falling, falling...!

My eyes flutter open slowly, oh my god, my head hurts so much! I turn my head to the side slowly to see that I'm in the hospital wing. I look at my body, my arm is bandaged up, but my whole body hurts so much.

Madam Pomfrey spots that I'm awake and is over by my bedside in an instant. "Ah, Jasmine. How lovely for you to join us again."

"What happened?" I ask, attempting to sit up, it hurts but I manage it.

Pomfrey adjusts my pillows to how I am sitting, "You fell off you broom during the Quidditch match yesterday. It was a pretty bad fall, but luckily only your arm was broken and I've mended it well for you. However, you have a lot of bruising, severely on your right hip. But your okay, which is what is important."

I lift the sheets up and see my hip; it's basically black with the bruising. "Have I had any visitors?" I ask but then regret it because I think it's a weird question to ask.

"Oh yes." Madam Pomfrey says, "Plenty, let's see... err, Mr Potter and Mr Weasley were here a few hours ago, Miss Granger came yesterday right after the game, Mr Thomas had a lot of questions and... ah yes Mr Malfoy."

"Draco was here?"

"Yes, the longest of everyone actually, must have sat in here for about 3 hours straight." She says.

I nod, "So when do you think I'll be able to leave?"

"Oh today. I was waiting for you to wake up. I'll need to check you're bruising over but then you'll be free to leave."

I limp out of the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey has said to take it easy for a while and to sit as much as I can because if I stand for too long my bruising will start to ache. My whole body hurts as I slowly start to walk towards the great hall. I can't believe how fortunate I was with that fall, the height I fell from I could have easily broken my spine or even died, but it was just an arm and some bruising, I'm considering myself lucky. The state my hip is in is really bad though, it gives off shooting pain if something taps it, and it looks like I've got some sort of weird disease.

I arrive outside the great hall doors; I question what table to go to. Considering Hermione came to see me first I head for her, which is also the place where all of my other Gryffindor friends are as well.

"Jasmine!" Ron calls, getting up from his chair and running up to me. He puts his arm around me to help me walk to the table; my limping must be really bad.

"How are you?" Hermione says as I sit opposite her.

"In pain, a lot of it. But alive so that's okay I guess." I say back.

"I'm so glad you're alive!" Dean shouts running up and hugging me from behind.

I laugh at him, "Yes, it is good. But could we all please mind my right hip. It's not great." I lift up the bottom of my t-shirt which reveals the top of the bruise.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaims as everyone else just looks shocked. "You did hit the floor pretty hard, it all happened rather quickly." He says.

"The whole of the school went quiet and the game was stopped for while so they could take you to the hospital wing." Harry says from next to me.

"I think everyone thought... they thought you had died." Hermione says seriously. "I mean, I did, for a minute and especially when I went to see you and you were still knocked out."

"Guys, a game of Quidditch is not nearly enough to kill me off. It would have to have been something a lot worse than just falling off my broom." I say.

"Yeah, I second that." Dean says.

"Fine, but next time, just try not to look dead." Hermione smiles. "Oh, by the way. Slughorn asked me to give you this," she hands me a letter, "A formal invite to his Christmas Party."

"Oh cool. Are you going too?" I ask both Hermione and Harry.

They nod.

I'm back in my common room again, on the floor in front of the fire, Dean was kind enough to walk me back. It's suddenly got really cold so that's why I'm in front of the fire.

"Hey." I hear a voice from behind me; they move and sit next to me, it's Draco. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better, but yeah I'm okay."

Her nods, "I came to see you, in the hospital wing."

"I know, about 3 hours straight. Pomfrey told me." I say, and smile shyly at him.

"It didn't feel like 3 hours." He says looking into the fire.

We sit there in silence for a minute, the fire warming both of us up.

"Are you okay?" I ask him.

His head shoot around to look at me, "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know I'm just checking that's all. We haven't really spoken much lately." I say.

He looks into the fire again, "I've been busy."

"With what." I ask.

"It's nothing really, trust me."

I watch is side profile as the look of depression takes over him. I just wish he'd tell me the truth. Even if it's bad. We sit silence once again, but I'm comfortable with it, and he seems to be too. It gets later and later, but we still don't speak a word.


	9. Chapter 9

Slughorns party is full of people from outside the school. I've already made talked with a ministry worker about the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. He told me what I'd have to do to get a job there and what kind of things go on in there.

I'm wearing a turquoise party dress tonight, I think I fit the dress code, but it was hard to know what to wear. I'm here with Blaise, just because we were both already going and we thought it would be easier than finding other dates. Of course, I was going to invite Draco, but decided it was a bad idea. Then Dean, but of course there's Ginny. So Blaise it is, which is fine.

"Cormac is revolting," Hermione says to me, "You have to save me from him." She's attempting to hide from him.

"By the way, he's walking over here." I say.

"Oh, God." She says before trying to make her escape.

There are lots of small canapés at this party, but they all look a bit weird so I'm scared to eat them if I'm being honest.

Just as I'm in the middle of my canapé thoughts, commotion happens, which see's Filtch dragging Draco into the party.

Draco mutters something about Flitch being a squib and I stand there in shock along with the rest of the party. Filtch then talks to Slughorn about finding Draco lurking about.

"Okay, Okay, I was gate crashing." Draco says, he quickly glances at me before Snape goes up to him.

I'm not sure what is going on, but next thing that happens Snape is taking Draco out of the party and Slughorns making us carry on as normal.

Dean walks over to me, "Any idea-"

"Not a clue." I say.

I then see Harry walk out the door, what is going on?

"I'm going to Ana's." I say to Dean.

"What? Now? Why?" He says confused, "I thought you weren't leaving until Christmas day."

"I wasn't," I say putting my drink down on the tray Neville walks past with.

"Right, okay. You're going right this minute?"

"Yes, Dean." I walk over to Slughorn with Dean at my heels.

"Professor?" I say, he turns around, "Thank you so much for having me here, it's been lovely. But unfortunately I have to leave. I'm going away for Christmas."

"Oh, that's not a problem, Jasmine. It was lovely having you here. Have a wonderful holiday. I'll see you next term?" Slughorn says happily.

I nod, "Yes, see you then, sir."

I walk away with Dean still trailing behind me, "Do you still have to pack?" He asks.

"Yes, that's why I'm going now, so I'll have time."

"Okay, well have a good time then. I'll see you soon." He says.

"Thank you, see you soon."

He hugs me, being cautious of my still bruised hip. Then I leave without saying anything to anybody else.

As I walk down the corridor, I see Harry leaning against the wall.

"Harry?" I say.

He nods, "He's one of them, for sure." He says, "I heard him talking to Snape, he has a mission, a mission that Voldemort has given him." He looks at me, "Where are you going?"

"Ana's."

"Oh, okay. If you see him on the way, watch out." He says, "Have a good time." He walks past me and back into the party room.

He's one of them. He's one of them. The words run through my mind on the way back to the common room, as I pack and as I prepare to leave. She doesn't live too far away from Hogwarts so I'm flying there.

The common room is empty as I start to walk through it.

"Where are you going?" His voice speaks.

"To my sisters."

"I thought you weren't going for a while yet?"

"I changed my mind, I'm going now."

"Without telling me?" He says, stepping out of the shadows.

"I don't have to tell you everything, Draco. You don't."

He looks straight at me, "What?"

"You don't tell me everything, I know you don't."

He stands there and looks at me.

"When were you planning on telling me?" I ask.

"I don't know what-"

I cut him off, "Yes you do know what! Draco!"

He stands there silent.

"You do know, and it seems you weren't going to tell me. You know I've noticed you use the words 'trust me' quite a bit, and I tried to trust you, but apparently you have no trust in me, so how could I in you?"

"Jasmine." He says.

"I'm going to Anastasia's." I say, "Have a good holiday." I walk away not listening to what he has to say back, sure he didn't confirm that he is a death eater but he didn't need to, the silence was a big enough give away, although, I'm sure I've known for a while now.

Once outside, I get on my broom and start my journey.

The sky is black, but I can see thanks to the moon and stars lighting up the sky. The sea is glistening beneath me, with gentle waves crashing into one another. The air up here is crisp and fresh, and luckily not too cold to be out in. It's late, 11pm. I don't know why I decided to leave at the time I did. My sister's probably now even awake anymore.

I can see their house, about 100 meters in front of me, this is it, I'm finally here.

I land the broom and walk up the front door, there's a single light on downstairs which gives me hope that that they are still awake. I knock on the door.

I stand for moment, there's no movement inside for a minute, but then I see a shadow on the other side of the door. It opens revealing a lady with ginger hair, minimal makeup and no piercings what so ever, but it's her.

"Hi." I say.

She opens the door wider, "Jasmine? Oh my god, Jas." She pulls me in for a hug and I wrap my arms around her. Geoff appears beside us.

"Hello, Jasmine." He says.

Me and Ana let go, "Hi, Geoff. Long time no see." I say.

I look at Anastasia, "Hi, Ana."

She smiles at me, but doesn't say anything.

"Oh, sorry I'm early, but also really late, you know what I mean."

"It's fine." Ana says, still smiling. "Come in then." She takes my wrist and pulls me into the house.

It's amazing in her, its looks small from the outside but it's actually huge. She takes me into the living room, the whole wall on the far side is made of glass, the furniture is a cream colour with wood textures everywhere, and it's all very rustic.

"Geoff, can get us some drinks please?" Ana asks.

He nods and disappears into the kitchen.

"Jasmine, look at you. You're so grown up. For some reason I thought you'd look exactly the same as the day I left, clearly I was wrong."

"What about you? You don't look remotely the same; for one thing your hair is ginger, what's that all about?" I ask laughing lightly.

"I wanted a change. Black was very, dark." She laughs as well.

This is amazing, I'm so happy to finally be with her again.

Geoff comes in with three glasses of something, "Homemade apple juice." He says.

"Geoff likes to home make things, but this is actually really good." Ana says, referring to the drink.

I take a sip, it's great.

We sit there for a moment until I hear crying, "I'll go." Geoff says.

Ana looks at me, "Yeah, I forgot to tell that. You have a niece, Avery."

Geoff comes walking out with the baby in his arms, "Would you like to hold her?" He asks me.

"Yes." I say putting my drink down on the wooden table in front of me.

Geoff walks over to me, and puts Avery in my arms, she's so beautiful.

"She's 5 months old." Ana says to me, as I look down at this adorable creature.

"I was going to tell you when we started writing again, but when you said you'd come for Christmas, I thought I'd keep her as a surprise."

"Oh my god, Ana. She's so gorgeous. I think this is going to be the best Christmas ever." I say, smiling up at Ana, and then looking down at Avery again.

Ana and I chat for a while until about 3am; Geoff went to bed a couple of hours ago.

"This is your room." Ana says walking me in.

The bedroom fits with the theme of the living room. It's the same colour scheme and there's an entire window wall. There's also a plain brick wall with a small fire place inside it.

"Is this okay?" Ana asks me.

"Okay? Ana this is amazing." I say walking around the room.

She smiles, "Thank you for coming." She says.

"Thank you for having me."

She laughs a little, "Have a good sleep, Geoff makes breakfast."

"I'll be ready." I say as she leaves the room.

I take a seat on the end of the bed and look out of the window. As lovely as this as all is, I kind of miss Draco, more than I care to admit. But I know I can't let the thought of him spoil my trip. So instead I get ready for bed, curl up and sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

I wake up to the smell of bacon, the sun beating through the window and the sound of wave crashing against rocks.

I sit up in the bed and look around, this room really is amazing. I stand up and put on some slippers and a dressing gown before heading downstairs to see Ana, Geoff and Avery.

"Good morning, Jasmania!" Geoff says as he sees me, now weird nickname, cool. "Breakfast is being put on the table as we speak." He's waving his wand about and moving the plates of food from the counter tops to the wooden dining table. "Take a seat." He says.

I do, and Ana is there with Avery.

"Sleep well?" Ana asks me.

"Yes, really well actually." I say, pouring myself a glass of Geoff's homemade apple juice.

"Breakfast is severed." Geoff says taking a seat at the table as well.

"Wow," I say at the amount of amazing looking food on the table. Bacon, eggs, toast, cheese, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, sausages, muffins, pancakes, croissants, oatmeal, a large variety of fruit and yogurt. This is amazing.

"You'll probably go back to school 3 stone heavier, but we hope you enjoy your stay." Ana says and laughs lightly, as she feeds a spoonful of yogurt to Avery.

Geoff starts to fill his plate, so I do too. This is so good.

By the time breakfast is over, I find it hard to move.

"I'm thinking about walking down the beach today, showing you the scenery?" Ana says to me.

"Yeah, okay, sounds good to me." When I can start moving again though.

"Cool, I'll let you get dressed and stuff then we'll go out."

I nod and smile. Now here's the tricky part of actually moving again. I pull myself out of the chair and walk back upstairs to my bedroom again. My clothes are all still in my bag, so I just pull out the first thing I can find to put on. I head for the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair, and put a minimal amount of makeup on my face. Anticipating the cold weather, I also throw on my woolly hat, scarf and gloves along with my winter coat.

"Let's go!" Ana call, when I reach the bottom of the stairs.

I smile and follow her out the door into the cold and harsh sea wind, it's still nice though.

We start our walk by heading straight to the edge of the sea; it's an extremely blue colour that could probably pass s the Caribbean Sea.

We begin to walk along the shore as Ana starts to talk, "So, how's school?"

"School? It's school." I say.

"Want to leave yet?" She asks.

"More or less every day," I smile.

Ana laughs at my comment, "I know what you mean."

We come to big pile of rocks; Ana begins to climb them so follow her.

"You're doing well though, aren't you? Still on track to become one of those magical doctor people in the ministry?" She asks me once we reach the top of the rocks.

"Oh, yeah. I'm doing fine, it's just not as fun as it use to be, there's a lot more work."

"Why do you think I left?" She says sitting down on the top of the rock pyramid.

I sit next to her.

"What about boys? How are they treating you?" Of course she's asking about that.

"Err... It's complicated." I say, oh wow.

"That means there's someone; you have to tell me about this, I'm your big sister... Wait, is it Dean?" She says.

"What? No, Dean's my best friend, nothing like that would ever happen between us." To be honest, I'm surprised she remembers Dean.

"Okay then, then who is it, it's not like I know him." Yes, but might know the name.

"It's just some guy; we hang out at school and stuff, that's really it."

"Why is it so, complicated then?" She asks.

"Why are you so noisy still? I thought you'd drop that as you got old." I laugh.

"As I got old?" Ana laughs, "Blimey, I'm only 22."

"Yeah, but now you have kid, and that means you're old." This is me just winding her up now.

She laughs again, "What about that Muggle girl who lived next door to us back at home, she had a baby at 15, is she old?"

"She's probably old now." I say.

"Oh, Jasmine, you knew what I meant."

I nod, and Ana laughs again.

"Maybe you should just drop out of school, like I did; you could probably still get your ministry job, by the grades you told me before you seem perfectly capable." Ana says after a few moments of silence.

"Maybe," I say back, I've thought about it before, but I don't know. It's probably not a great idea anyway.

Christmas comes around quickly, and we are soon exchanging gifts with one another.

"Candles?! Yes... Oh my god, they smell amazing." Ana says.

They give me some jewellery that Ana hand crafted, a box of unusual chocolate flavours that Geoff made and a framed photo of Avery. "Thank you, guys. These are all so lovely." I say, embracing them both in a hug and then kissing Avery's head.

We spend the day singing Christmas songs, as Geoff cooks dinner for us all. The evening is spent with board games, and more singing. This is the best Christmas I've had for a while.

An owl appears at the window later on with a present from Dean, it's my favourite perfume and a small passport size photo of him that says ' _I know how much you miss me_ ' on the back.

I sent him my present a couple of days ago, it was a new West Ham shirt and an extremely sentimental card (when I say sentimental I actually mean extremely crude and I really hope his mother doesn't read it.)

We take a seat on the sofa together at the end of the night, all exhausted, Anastasia is leaning on Geoff and Avery is asleep in my arms. I wish it could be this perfect forever, I'd drop out of school to have this every day, I really would.

On Boxing Day I wake up at 2pm, and spend most of time in my room writing back to my friends. I am interrupted by loud voices coming from downstairs, not shouting, just loud, it's 7pm. I drag myself off the floor to see what all of this is about, as I walk down the stairs I see Geoff and Ana standing by the door with something else. He is dressed in all black, and he looks tired.

"Draco?" I say, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.

"Jasmine, he says he's come to see to you." Ana says.

I stand there and just look at him, what is he doing here?

"Would you like to come in?" Ana says cheerfully. She and Geoff stand aside and Draco walks in.

"Can we talk please?" Draco says his voice shaky.

I stare at him for a moment, before giving a slight nod and turning around to walk back upstairs.

I hear Geoff say its fine to go up and then Draco footsteps on the stairs.

I sit on my bed and wait for him to come into the room, he does and he closes the door behind him.

He stands by the closed door for a while, head facing the ground.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"I want- I want you to trust me." Draco says, his voice shakier then before. "I need you to know that... I don't want to hurt you but I'm scared and I don't know what I'm doing here, but I need you to trust me." He looks up and straight into my eyes.

I sit on the bed and watch him as he slowly walks over and sits down next to me.

"Draco?" I say.

"Please, just trust me." He says again, holding the sleeve of his left arm.

I'm scared about what's going to happen, even know I know what's happening. "I trust you." I say.

He pushes up the bottom of his sleeve, but stops at the wrist, I put my hand onto his and start to pull it up for him, and he avoids looking at me, as he lets me do it. There it is, his sleeve has been fully pushed up and he has moved his hand away and is now looking out of the window as I examine his arm. The dark mark, I'm shocked, I knew it was there but I think there was something in mind telling me there wasn't. I trace my finger over the mark; it's still slightly raised from where they burnt it into his skin. I can feel my throat becoming tight and my eyes filling with tears.


	11. Chapter 11

"Draco?" I whisper, "Look at me, please."

He doesn't.

"Look at me." I snap a little more and his face turns to me.

His cheeks are wet with silent tears; it breaks my heart to see him like this. All the years I've known him he seemed like such a strong person, but now I realize that he bullied people and acted strong as a cover-up of what he really is. This is his life; this is what he has to deal with.

"I wanted to tell you. But I didn't want to hurt you." He says, trying hard to keep his tears in, it doesn't work.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, I know." I don't know what to say to him so I bring him into a hug instead.

"Please, believe that I'm never going to hurt you, ever. You have to trust me on that, please." He whispers quietly in my ear.

"I trust you, Draco." I whisper back.

There is silent period as Draco and I just stay embraced, getting over our tears. Soon, I hear Draco say my name, I listen to him intently and he says, "I love you."

I pull away from his brace and look into his eyes, here come my tears again, "I love you too."

Draco smiles at me before pushing his lips onto mine, I'm still crying a little so this can't be that great. But Draco doesn't seem to care as he gently pushes me down onto the bed and keeps kissing me. He's completely on top of me and I can see where Draco wants this to go. However, I can also tell that Draco won't try anything if I don't lead him too it. I move my hands to the top of his shirt and begin to undo the buttons; Draco pulls his lips from mine to see what is going on.

"Really?" He asks, maybe even a little too eager.

I nod, and he kisses me once again, and starts to pulls my t-shirt from the bottom, it was a slight struggle put eventually he gets it off. When his shirt is finally off, I push him off me so I can get my own jeans off and straddle his lap as he sits up against the head board. I place my hands on his body as he gently holds my face and kisses me.

"I love you so much." He says to me.

"I love you." I say back to him.

My hands then travel down to his belt and we both watch intently as I begin to undo it. I soon get it undone, and then I look back up at him.

"Are you definitely sure about this, we don't have to-"

"Shhh," I say putting my finger against his lips. "I'm sure."

He smiles once again, before placing his lips back on mine.

We lay on the bed together, our bodies pressed against each other in hot mess. I draw circles on Draco's bare chest as strokes my hair. We lay in silent, half catching our breaths and half simply taking in what happened. I wonder for a moment if we were too loud and Ana and Geoff heard us, but then I realize that I don't care, all I care about is being in this moment with my love... my death eater. No! That's not what I meant, just my love. God, trust my brain to think of that at a time like this, trying to ruin it for me. There's no way of escaping it though, he is a death eater and if I am to stay with him that is something I am going to have to come to terms with.

"Stay here tonight." I say, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Are you sure they won't mind." They as in my sister and almost brother in law I'm sure he means.

"No, they'll be fine." I'm sure they will.

It goes quiet after that, but this time it's uncomfortable, I can tell that he is now thinking about the death eater thing too.

I sit up, "Draco, it's okay you know." I take his hand in mine, "It hasn't changed the way I feel for you and nor will it ever, please don't wound up about this."

"I'm not."

He is.

"And whatever... Voldemort has told you do, I'll support you, whatever it is, you know that don't you." I remember the thing that Harry said the other night and the whole incident with Katie Bell.

"I know. But, can we not talk about that right now, please." He says.

"Okay." I love how sensitive he's become now; he really does trust me, which makes me happy.

"Will you come back to the mansion with me tomorrow?" He asks out of the blue.

"What?"

"The other death eaters aren't there, just my mother, my father is in-"

"I know." I say, cutting him off before he has to say anymore, "Okay, I'll go with you."

"You will? What about your sister?" He says.

"Its fine, we're in contact now anyway, they'll be plenty of other opportunities to see her."

He doesn't say anything back, so I lay back down next to him. He puts an arm around me and pulls me closer, holding me tight, like he doesn't want to ever let go. My head is on his chest again and hear the sound of his heart beat which beats softly and rhythmically and soon my eyes flutter shut and I feel myself drifting off to sleep.

I wake up in the morning to find Draco sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed and ready to leave.

"Hey," He says giving a small smile.

I smile back and sit up, my bags are packed in the corner of the room, it looks like he really wants to leave.

"I wasn't trying to rush you," He says as he catches my eyes looking over at my bags, "I just, well, I guess I am rushing a little bit, I'm sorry."

I think he's just nervous about me going me meet his mother, I'm slightly nervous too. "It's fine, I have to tell my sister we are leaving still though."

He nods, "Okay, there's still a few bits of clothing I didn't pack as well because I didn't know what you wanted to wear today, oh and also there's your makeup bag on the side."

"Okay, well thank you." I stand up out of the bed and walk over to the clothes that are still left out, jeans and a shirt will be fine for today I'm sure, I take them into the bathroom, along with my makeup bag, to get ready.

I'm a little upset to be leaving my sister now, I've had such a nice time and I really don't want to leave. But I can see that Draco isn't comfortable here, and I want him to be happy, especially after what he told me last night. God, I almost forgot about that, I guess we'll have to talk about it again at some point, because conversations don't just end with, 'I'm a death eater.'

There's a knock at the door, "Your sister's calling you." Draco says through the door.

"Okay, don't worry, I'm almost done." I look in the mirror and add a little makeup to my face and throw my hair into a ponytail, and then I'm ready.

"Jas!" I hear Anastasia call I step out of the bathroom.

"Hang on, just coming." I call back and she goes silent. "Come on then." I turn to Draco and say; he picks up my bags and follows me out of the room.

Geoff is holding Avery at the bottom of the stairs; he turns to see me, "Jas? Are you leaving?"

At that moment, Ana turns around to see me as well.

"Err, yeah." I say, feeling awkward and slightly guilty.

"Oh, well I won't ask you what you want for breakfast then." Ana laughs.

I give a slight laugh back and smile, "Draco has asked me to come and stay with him for a while, before we go back to school."

"No, that's fine. It was lovely having you here, Jasmine." Ana says coming to give me a hug. "You can come back whenever you want, you know that don't you?"

"Yes, okay. We'll have to arrange something soon."

"Great to see you again," Geoff says, giving me a side hug because he's still holding Avery. I then kiss Avery on the head and she smiles her gummy no teeth smile.

"Look after my sister, Draco." Ana says, half serious, I'm not sure if she knows exactly who he is, but I think she might have an idea.

"I intent too, don't you worry." Draco looks at me and gives me an ultra small smile; I look away and back at my family.

"We're going to use the floo network, do you mind?" I ask.

Ana gestures towards the fireplace and Draco steps in first.

"I'll meet you there." He says, "Malfoy Manor." He's gone.

"Stay safe, with him." Ana says, I think she's worked it out.

"He's not bad." I say before stepping into the fireplace, "I'll see you soon."

"Keep in touch, Jasmine."

I smile at my family as I take a handful of Floo Powder into my hand, "Malfoy Manor." I say clearly.

Green flies around me, as my vision becomes a blur of nothing but light, the warm of the floo network flames fly around me until I meet Draco's eyes.

"Glad you could make it." He says.


	12. Chapter 12

I step out of the fireplace into the extraordinarily large room, a staircase to my left, it's beautiful and even though it's stone everywhere it's surprisingly warm.

"Come I want you to meet my mother." He says walking towards to the large staircase, at the top there are more stairs on the left, "Leave your bags here, we'll get them in a minute." Draco points at the ground at the bottom of the second staircase I drop my bags down and stand with him outside a room that says '1st Reception.'

Draco looks at me and gives me a small smile before knocking on the door gently, "Mother?" He says.

"Draco?" I hear from the other side, "Come in, come in." There's a lot of noise from the other side of the door, Draco opens it and we see his mother cramping loads of parchment and books into drawers.

"What are you doing?" Draco asks as we both step into the room.

His mother looks concerned, "Just things, there's a lot of forms, your father." She looks over at me and smiles. "You must be Jasmine, oh Draco." She turns her attention back to him, "She's lovely, isn't she?" She kisses him on the cheek and then comes over to me, "Narcissa Malfoy, it's wonderful to finally meet you." She embraces me in a tight hug and hug back awkwardly.

"It's lovely to meet you." I say.

Narcissa smiles, "Draco's been talking about you for so long now, it's magnificent to see that you two are finally together." She turns to Draco, "After all this time."

"Okay, mother." Draco snaps, "That's enough."

"Draco, it's nothing to feel embarrassed about, Jasmine probably knows all sorts of embarrassing things about you by now."

"What are you doing?" Draco says, in a sort of rhetorical question type way.

I watch the two of them as the exchange uncomfortable eye contact, like they are talking telepathically.

"Sorry," Narcissa snaps out of it, "I'm not sure what I was- I- sorry." She stutters. "I'm going to get some food and things... Draco show Jasmine around." And with that she apparates out of the room.

I look over at Draco, who is now looking a bit put off and more uncomfortable than ever.

"Sorry about her, sometimes she does doesn't know when to stop speaking." It seems like Draco thinks his mother has just done a terrible injustice, but I didn't think she was doing anything wrong.

"It's fine; honestly, I think she's just happy for you." I say.

Draco heads for the door, "Must be." He says on the way out.

Draco and I grab my luggage and we start to walk up through the manor house. I can't help thinking about what his mother said though, 'after all this time', I hadn't mentioned it to Draco as I thought it might make him feel even more awkward or maybe it was just the way his mother said it and it wasn't weird at all. It hadn't been that long since Draco hated me so I'm sure it was a weird thing to say 'all this time' too, she said it like it had been years.

"It's at the end of this corridor." Draco says.

"Huh?"

"My room, down here." He says, now taking the lead and walking off in front of me.

I follow closely behind him as we walk down the ridiculously long corridor. It is very dimly lit up here and the paintings on the walls kind of put me on edge, its lovely here, put all little creepy. The room must be huge here, because we've only walked past three doors and the corridor goes on for ages. At the end of the corridor is a large oak wood door with a thick metal black handle and lock on it. On it, it reads, 'D.L Malfoy.'

Draco puts his hand in this pocket and produces a key; he puts it in the lock and turns it, "Welcome." Draco says as he pushes the door to step inside.

I follow closely behind him and watch as his whole bedroom comes to life. There's a large fireplace that suddenly roars with flames, there's a shiny black leather sofa in front of that where a blanket lies itself across it and the pillows plump themselves. The green velvet curtains on the king size 4 poster bed open up, and so do the curtains on the windows. The lamps on the bedside and small coffee table also switch on and glow a slight yellowy colour.

"The room is full of enchantments." Draco says taking some of my bags over to a chest of drawers on the other side of the room.

"It's amazing." I say following him with the remainder of my bags.

"I'm glad you think so," He takes a set on the sofa in front of the fire and watches me as I explore the room further.

There's a wardrobe on the other side, I open it and it's full of Draco's clothes as well as a double mirror that folds out automatically and lights shine from above it.

"I have to make sure I look perfect." Draco says.

As I step away the whole things shuts on its own, I go to the bed. I sit down and it's so comfortable, on the wall behind the bed there is a large picture of scenery, a large green area with a river flowing through it and trees, it's only when I see a flock of birds fly over it that I realize its moving picture.

"Nice to get away sometimes." Draco says.

There are two bed side tables but the one furthest away from me is the one I'm most interested in, there's another moving picture, in a frame this time. I shuffle over on the bed and go and look at it, it's me. I pick it up to study it, it's not a resent picture, it's me at the Yule Ball, I'm all dressed up and fiddling with my hair.

"It's good to have you there." Draco says.

I stand up from the bed, the frame still in my hands, "This was 2 years ago, is that how long you've it for?"

He nods, "I think Blaise took it on the night, I found it at the end of the Ball."

"Why would you-" I start to say but then it dawns on me. Someone who hated me wouldn't fall in love me the way Draco did, not that fast. He wouldn't have opened up to me so much that fast either. I'm not thinking that maybe his mother did mean it was a long time when she said, 'after all this time.'

"You didn't hate me did you?" I say to him.

"No. For the first few years I stayed away from you and was mean to you because I thought you didn't like me. 4th year I realised something, I wasn't just mean to you because you didn't like me, I was mean to you because I felt something for you, something stronger then I could explain and I think I must of got scared and taken it out on you. The rest of that year wasn't bad, but when 5th year came along I used to see you with your friends and I got so jealous that I wasn't one of them. The fact that you spoke to me this year broke that, I could open up to you and tell you things because you made the first move, I didn't have to hurt you to get your attention because you seemed to genuinely want to get to know me. And now here we are."

"Now here we are." I repeat his words. I put the picture frame back on the side table and go over to Draco, he is still sitting on the sofa so I sit down on his lap my face centimetres from his, "I love you, Draco Malfoy."

"I love you, Jasmine Gold," He replies.

The manor is amazing, I've now had a guided tour by Draco and it's just wonderful. I can't help thinking about how it's going to be used as a death eater base though, it just ruins it really.

"Dinner should be ready now, shall we go downstairs?" Draco says taking my hand in his.

I nod and smile before following him downstairs to the dining room. The table could easier sit at least 20 people so it feels weird when Draco and I sit down together with his mother all the way at the other end.

"Dinner is served." Narcissa says, smiling. "I'm sorry about earlier, Jasmine. I don't know what come over me, I'm just happy for my son." She looks at Draco and he avoids her eyes and starts to eat the soup that sits in the bowl in front of him. Narcissa looks back at me and does an equally as lovely smile.

"It's fine." I smile back at her.

Draco looks at me out of the corner of his eye and I see him smirk.

We get through three courses in the time we are in the dining room. Each as wonderful as the last. By the time we are finished it is dark outside and Draco is standing up from the table.

"Excuse us mother. Jasmine." He turns to me and puts out his hand. He doesn't say anything else so I take it and he pulls me up.

"Lovely dinner, Narcissa." I say before Draco walks me out the room.

There is a door directly opposite the dining room which we seem to heading for. Draco walks up to the door and opens automatically, I cold breeze instantly hitting both of us. Draco turns to look at me and gives a small smile, "It's alright, I'll keep you warm in a minute."

I smile even though he's turned away again.

We walk out the door and into the fountain court; a path with trees; bushes; flowers and pretty lights lead to the main part where a great fountain sits. The water sprays high up and lights inside it illuminate it and make it look amazing. 2 wooden benches are on either side of the fountain, facing it. Draco takes me and we sit on one of them together. He pulls me closer to him; I guess this is him keeping me warm.

"Well?" Draco says.

This is the last thing of the manor I had to see and I'm glad he left it until last. The flowers, trees, bushes and lights carry on around the edge of the court and frame everything magnificently.

"It's beautiful." I say, resting my head on his shoulder as his arm is around me.

We watch the fountain for while, and the stars, it doesn't feel as cold outside anymore.

"Hey, it's getting late; we should probably get back inside." Draco says to me. He doesn't move, neither do I. But he's right; we should probably get back inside.

I move from him and stand up I go over to the fountain and dip my hand into the cold water and swirl it around. I then take my hand out again and turn to Draco before flicking the water onto him. I laugh and start running back up the path.

"Jasmine!" He shouts laughter in his voice. I hear him running after me.

The door seems far away, I can tell Draco is close to me.

He grabs me a few meters from the door and spins me around then back down again, "That wasn't funny." He says with a smirk on his face.

I laugh at him, "Come on." I say, taking his hand and walking back inside.

We walk up the stairs and head back to his room. The door opens and the lights and the fire turn on as we walk in. I let go of Draco's hand and sit on the sofa, he heads over to his bedside.

"Jas?" He says.

"Yeah?" I say back putting my feet up on the sofa and facing him.

He stays over by the bedside, his smirk has now fully faded and he looks slightly upset.

"Everything okay?" I ask.

He nods, "It's just, I thought I should tell you something. I mean, it seems the right time."

I shuffle in my position so my full attention is on him, "What is it?"

He looks down at the ground, "You know the death eater thing."

"Yes."

"Well, it's not easy. There's something I have to do."

"What do you mean?"

He looks at me, "Voldemort's making me do it. If I don't then he'll..." His voice drains off.

I stand up from the sofa but stay away from him. "Draco?"

He's looking at the ground again; I can see he's mentally in pain.

"Draco, what's going on?" I say.

He shakes his head and this is when I see that he is crying, he's trying hard to conceal it but I can see. "He's going to kill me." He looks up at me, "Unless I kill Dumbledore."

I stand there in shock, staring at him, his eyes red with tears.

"Jasmine? Say something." He says.

"Why? Why is he making you-"

The shaking of his head cuts me off.

"Draco, what are you going to do?" I ask.

"What I have to, I don't want to die, Jasmine. Especially not now." He says.

"What will happen to you? They'll send you Azkaban."

"The death eaters are supposed to help me, be there, and take me away after it's happened."

I stand there and watch him, this can't be happening, Draco can't kill someone. The death eater can't take him away; he'll be caught, locked up for sure.

"What about me?" I ask, "What will I do once you're gone? I can't come here, not when they're here, not when he's here."

Draco stares at me, "I don't know, I don't want to be away from you. But I have too; he'll kill me if I don't."

I turn away from him and face the fire as I feel tears come into my eyes.

"Jasmine?" His voice is coarse, "I don't want to do this, I don't want to be part of it. But I have no choice."

I turn back and walk over to him, he watches me the whole way.

I shake my head at him.

"What-" I put my finger to his lips to silence him. I don't want to talk about this anymore, if we only have a short time together I want to enjoy it, I don't want it filled with death eater bull shit!

I strip down to my underwear and get into the bed, without talking he does the same. I lay my head on him and the lights go off. We don't say another word to each other.


	13. Chapter 13

The Christmas holiday is over and I'm back on the train with Draco next to me. My friends still don't know about us, and I'm now worrying about what to do. Especially now I know what he is.

"What you thinking?" Draco turns to me and says quietly.

"I'm worried." I admit. He knows exactly what I mean, my friends, death eaters and Dumbledore.

"Me too." He says, although I wish he didn't.

I spot someone standing by the entrance of the carriage, Harry. He sees me looking and nods me over to him.

"I have to go." I tell Draco.

He looks over and spots Harry too, "Okay." He says in a mere whisper.

I get up from my seat and walk towards to Harry; he waits for me to be next to him before speaking.

"Have you confirmed it yet?" He asks me.

"No." I lie, I can't tell him. I can't tell him anything.

"Come sit with us." He starts to walk back to his own carriage and I follow him.

Ron and Hermione are sitting chatting as Harry and I walk in.

"Oh hey, Jasmine," Ron turns to me "How was your sisters?"

"Good thanks, I have a niece, Avery."

"Avery? That's beautiful." Hermione says.

"As lovely as that is, can we please talk about the other thing." Harry looks stressed.

I don't know what I can say. I can't tell them that I know Draco is a death eater and I can't tell them that he has to kill Dumbledore because that would lead to me telling them that he is in fact a death eater, and I definitely can't tell them I'm dating Draco because they'll never trust me with anything, but surely they'll find out eventually, in which case I'm screwed.

"Jas?" Harry interrupts my chain of thought.

"Huh?"

"I asked how he's acting."

"Oh, Draco. Well he seems no more suspicious than usual. I'm not sure if there's actually any-"

Harry interrupts me, "Jasmine, it really seems like you aren't trying at all. You haven't found anything out and he seem to hang out with him all the time now! I wouldn't be surprised if you were with him over Christmas really!" He's shouting.

"Harry, calm down!" Hermione shouts back.

What is happening.

"I just don't understand how you have no leads or anything. If we don't find out what we think he is and then it just so happens that he is what we think he is, he could kill half the school!"

"He wouldn't!" I shout back.

"How do you know?" He says in a harsh tone.

I don't know what to do, better make up my mind quick. "You know what; I don't want to be a part of this anymore. I'm done trying to help you, Harry. Let me know if you find anything out." I stand up from my seat and start to walk away.

"Brilliant, Harry." I hear Hermione say in a sarcastic tone as I close the door.

I'm sitting in the common room when Draco finally finds me again.

"Where the hell have you been? I waited for you, I saw Potter and his lot coming off the train, you weren't with them."

"I sat by myself." I say simply.

"You okay?" He asks coming to sit next to me.

"I'm fine. Just worried about you and everything."

His gaze turns away from me and glances around the room. "I'm mending a cabinet," he says quietly, "It's basically done, it's for other _death eaters_ to get into Hogwarts." He emphasises 'death eaters' but in an almost non-existent whisper. "They're not going to hurt anyone though; I think it's like moral support."

"Moral support? Draco, you must be joking." I say to him.

"Well, I didn't mean it like that, I just mean that they're going to be there when, you know." Unfortunately I do know.

"Do you- Do you think you'll be able to do it?" I ask, even for Draco this seems extreme, although he's been mean to people, I don't think he's capable of this.

He looks down, "I don't know. But I have to, you know?"

"I know."

"Hey, Beautiful," Blaise voice calls before I see him coming.

"Hi, Blaise."

"Oh, sorry, Jasmine. I was actually talking to Draco." He punches him playfully on to shoulder.

"Hilarious." The sarcastic tone in Draco's voice is almost too much to bear.

"Nah, I'm kidding. But seriously. I haven't spoken to either of you for weeks, how's it going? Good Christmas?"

As much as I love Blaise, I really don't want to talk to him right now. And I can tell that Draco doesn't either. But I don't want him to find out about Draco and I right now and pushing him away might do just that, so I let him stay.

The next day Draco is nowhere to be seen again, I don't have to question what he's doing anymore, I already know all too well.

I'm charms sitting next to Dean.

"You what exactly happened with you and Harry?" He asks.

"It was just something that he wanted my help with but I just didn't want to help, it's hard to explain." I realize how stupid I must sound to Dean right now, but he doesn't call me out.

"Okay then, how's your non-viral spells going?" He changes the subject quickly, so I don't have to.

I flick my wand at the clay pot in front of me and it smashes into tiny pieces, "Good."

He nods and smiles at me before proceeding to practice on his own pot. "I heard about your niece by the way, can't believe you didn't tell me." He looks back at me after shrinking the pot in front of him down.

"Oh, yeah, I told Ron, I just sort of forgot after that."

"I know you told him, he was the one who told me. Are you okay? You seem a little distracted."

I'm glad I have my best friend next to me, asking how am. But I wish I could tell him about what's going on. "I'm fine."

"Ron's in the hospital wing." Seamus turns up next to me the next morning at breakfast.

"What, why, is he okay?" I ask slightly panicked, shifting in my seat.

"Yeah, I think so. Last night though, he drank poison apparently." He takes a slice of toast from the table. "Not intentionally, he was with Harry and Slughorn, something just went wrong I guess."

"Are you sure he's okay?" I ask, Seamus seems to not be too put off by the situation.

"Yeah, go and see him if you want. There are loads of people down there."

I do.

Once again, Draco isn't anywhere to be seen. I haven't seen him much at all since we got back to school.

Ron. As I walk into the hospital wing I see him lying on the bed, asleep. Harry spots me and comes over.

"What are you doing here?" His voice is dead.

"He's my friend, Harry."

"Well it seemed like you were being a bit of a cow before, didn't think you actually wanted anything to do with us anymore." What?

"I have no idea what you're on about. I'm happy being friends with Ron and Hermione." I give him a smug smile and walk past him to the bedside.

Dumbledore is talking to Slughorn about the bottle filled with poison, this is really bad. I can't help but think about who must have done this, and I think I have a pretty good idea.

Suddenly, Lavender hurries in calling out for Ron. I roll my eyes as I hear other people around me give an annoyed sigh.

There's a spat between Hermione and Lavender which I did not expect to happen at all, it only stops when Ron begins to speak.

"Her-mi-nee." Lavender hears the word and runs back out crying, I think that's the last we'll be seeing of her.

Hermione takes Ron's hand before giving me quick smile, I smile back.

"I think it's time for us to leave." Dumbledore states and I nod in agreement.

The whole crowd of people disperses from the room, leaving Hermione and Ron alone. "It's about time", I heard Ginny say to Harry. You got that right.

Once we're all out of the wing I see Harry walking up the stairs, he stops. From the angle of which I am I see him looking at Draco. Harry follows, therefore so do I. We climb to the top of the stairs, Harry unaware of my presence, and watch Draco as he heads round the corner to the next corridor. When both Harry and I get there too, Draco is gone. The Room of Requirement.

"What are you doing?" I say, Harry whips around to face me.

"Could ask you the same, thought you didn't want to help anymore."

"I don't."

"So you're here because?" He leaves it open for me to fill in the blank.

"I was just curious."

"Yeah, well curiosity killed the cat." He states, Muggle sayings.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I just don't want to be caught up in a mess. I don't want to be part of the drama of it all I guess." I know I already am, but he doesn't, so I say it for his sake more than anything.

He shrugs, "Fine."

"Fine." I say back, before watching him walk away.

Its midnight when Draco finally comes back to the common room, he's wiping his eyes as he walks in, has he been crying?

"Draco?" I say standing up and walking over to him.

"Jas." He embraces me immediately in his arms. The common room is empty apart from the two of us.

"What happened?" I pull away from him but still keep him close enough.

"It's ready, the cabinet," He looks up to the ceiling to prevent more tears from coming, I presume.

"That's a good thing isn't it? It means it's almost over."

"No. It means it's just started to become real. I can't do this, Jasmine." He looks back down at me, his words full of pain.

I don't know what to say, I can't encourage him because I don't want him to do it. But I know I can't talk him out of it either. So, I just hug him, tightly and I don't let go. He hugs me back and I can hear him crying softly on my shoulder.


	14. Chapter 14

The next few days drag for an exceptionally long time. I've been corresponding with Ava over the last few days, she keeps pestering me about dropping out of school, I say "No" every time. At the beginning of the year, I couldn't wait to leave, but now I don't think I do, I know it sounds crazy but everything I've ever really loved is here.

Draco is getting worse and worse by the second, he skips almost all of his classes and I've found him on the floor with his cheeks drenched with tears more than once. I really don't know if he can do this task he's been assigned, all I know is that he's stopped talking about it completely.

I head into the great hall and things seem gloomy, more than usual. I can't quite put my finger on it, as I sit down next to Dean.

"Morning," He gives me a simple greeting before taking a swig from his pumpkin juice.

I respond by simply nodding towards him, before glancing around the hall that is filled with the unusual atmosphere.

"Is everything okay?" Dean asks, clearly noticing my lack of attention towards him.

"Things don't seem right," I state exactly what I'm thinking in my mind.

"Care to elaborate?"

I turn to face him, "Can't you feel it? There's something different, like there's something looming over our heads. I don't know what though."

He stares blankly at me for a few seconds, "I think it's the fact that you've gone _crazy_."

"No, I mean it. There's something wrong."

This time he doesn't reply to me he sits, looking at me for a moment, before asking something completely off topic, "Have you spoken to your parents?"

He snaps me out the questioning daze I'm in with his strange question. "No, why?"

"Oh, well I got an owl from my mum saying that they've planned to move." He says, not giving me any details at all.

"What do you mean, 'Move'?" I ask, why haven't they told me this?

"I don't know exactly, it just mentioned it in a letter that I got. It said something like, 'Has Jas told you about her parents? We've been talking and they say they're decided to move house.'"

"Oh." I'm not sure what else to say, the fact that Dean has found out about the move before I have makes me question things a lot.

"Just send a letter to your parents; I'm sure they'll tell you what's going on." Dean says, but I can tell that he doesn't fully believe that himself.

I nod in agreement before glancing up at the peculiar scenario in front of me. Harry and Katie Bell are standing at one end of the hall, staring at Draco, who's on the other side. Draco looks panicked as Harry looks curiously at him. Katie Bell, the curse, oh god. Next thing I know, Draco is rushing out of the hall, followed by Harry running after him.

"Dean, I have to go." I state, getting up from my seat.

"Where are you going?!" He shouts as I leave his side.

I ignore him completely and attempt to get out of the great hall, for some reason there are now people everywhere. "Move!" I shout whilst pushing my through them all. I can hear people asking me if I'm okay, most of them know me from Quidditch.

"Gold?"

"You okay, Jas?"

"You alright, Gold?"

"What's wrong?"

Everyone is eventually out of my way and I rush up the staircase I saw Harry run up a few moments ago. As I reach the top, I see him running up another staircase and out of sight, Oh no, I can't lose them. I run along the corridor and ascend up the staircase, when I finally reach the top there's no sign of Harry, or Draco, anywhere.

Shit! In mentally curse at myself as I hurry around, looking like a lost puppy.

There's no sign of them anywhere, I begin to worry, I don't know what will happen between the two of them but I know it won't be good. I quickly run pas the bathroom as I hear shouting and crashes from inside. I push the door open and hurry in. I am facing Harry's back as I see Draco appear opposite.

"Sectumsempra!" Harry shouts, causing Draco she shoot out of sight.

I gasp and Harry turns quickly to face me, I run pushing past him to get to Draco.

The first thing I see is red. Draco's blood seeping through his shirt and spilling out into the water around him. I collapse by his side and take his face in my hands. His eyes are closed and he's struggling to breathe as he gasps for air. Tears start to stream down my face as I watch the boy I love dying in front of me.

I hear Harry's footsteps behind me. "Jasmine." He says I turn around briefly to see regret and fear all over his face. "Wha-"

He's interrupted as someone enters the bathroom, Snape. He glances at Harry before kneeling beside Draco.

I see Harry leave out of the corner of my eye, I don't want to leave Draco but as I see Snape begin to heal his wounds I get up and run.

I wipe my tears away before catching up with Harry; I push him to get his attention.

"Draco?!" He shouts, a few bystanders turn to look.

"Don't you dare!" I shout back.

"Jasmine, you're dating a bloody death eater! I don't think you have the right to be screaming at me!"

"What? Harry, you almost killed him!"

"So you're not denying it then?" He says, slightly calmer but still full of anger, "You're dating him, and you know that he's a death eater."

I try to hold back my tears as I shake my head, I don't know why I'm shaking my head, I'm just scared of Harry right now.

"You are unbelievable. Of course you offer to help me and then end up dating the guy. Should have known it was going to happen ever since you slept with Blaise. Can't keep your hands off them can you? Disgusting really."

That's it; tears are now covering my cheeks as about 50 students gather round me and Harry to hear his harsh words.

"I was going to tell you-" I try but Harry cuts me off.

"Yeah, sure you were. After he'd burnt down the school, killed half us and you've both run off to a different country."

"Why are you doing this?" I can barely speak right now.

"Because all you are is a little-"

"That's enough!" I hear a familiar voice shout and cut off Harry's.

Dean.

He pushes his way through the crowd of people and appears at my side. He pulls me into his arms and holds me as I cry into his chest.

"Okay people, back off! Get back to your own lives!" I hear Seamus' voice instruct the people around us.

I look up to see everyone leaving the corridor, including Harry.

"That's, man." Dean says to Seamus.

Seamus nods and leaves too.

Once the corridor is completely deserted, Dean and I walk and sit on a stone bench at the wall.

We sit in silence for a few minutes as I catch my breath back from crying so much.

Dean is the first one to finally speak. "Why didn't you tell me?" His voice is soft; I can feel his gaze in me as I look down at the floor.

I shrug, "I didn't want anyone to know."

"But I'm not anyone am I? I'm your best friend."

"Yeah, well everyone knowns now so I don't think it matters anymore." I say, letting out a deep sigh straight after.

"I'm not angry you know, or disappointed either. I've seen you two together; you seem to get on well."

"That's not the point. The thing that Harry said about Draco, the fact he's a-"

"Don't." He stops me, "I don't care if he's a death eater or not, I should, but really all I care about is how he treats you and how he makes you feel."

"I love him." I say, Dean doesn't react shocked or anything.

"I know."

I think he really did already know. Deans has always been the person who knew everything about me, sometimes even before I knew it myself. Knowing him he'd probably worked out that I was dating Draco within the first week. I'm glad I have him; I think he's the only thing that's kept me sane for the past 12 years.

"Thank you," I say to him. He smiles and I rest my head of his shoulder.


	15. Chapter 15

He looks so peaceful in his sleep. I watch him as he slowly breathes in and out, in and out. My Draco is alive, thanks to Snape of all people. I still can't believe what Harry did to him, then what he said to me. I understand how it may have been wrong in his mind but he had no right to call me what he did, well what he implied anyway.

"3 hours," Madam Pomfrey says to me as she checks on Draco. She says it because she remembers that that is how long he sat with me for, when I was unconscious in this room too.

I don't intend to leave though, not now. I don't ever want to leave his side.

I need to write my parents a letter, specifically my mum (she'll probably know more), about the plan to move house. I still can't believe she hasn't told me about this, I've lived in the same house since I was 4 years old, it holds so many memories, although some weren't perfect it's still my home. I grab some parchment from my bag.

 _Mother,_

 _I hope you had a lovely Christmas; mine was wonderful, thank you for asking._

 _Anyway, I've been speaking with Dean at school recently and he said something about us moving? I find it odd that you haven't told me about this, but I'm sure that there is a reasonable explanation for that. I'm just a little confused as why you and father have decided it's time to move, I thought you liked our home._

 _If you could get back to me soon that would be great._

 _Also I'm sorry for sending you this message by owl post; I know that you don't like it._

 _Jasmine_

A couple more hours past until I decide to leave Draco, I needed to send my message to my mother anyway.

I bump into Hermione on the way back through the school; I'm heading for my common room.

"Jasmine," She says as I'm face to face her. "I'm not going to say anything horrid," She says when I don't reply to my name.

"Okay." I'm not sure what to say at this point.

"I'm so sorry about what Harry said to you," She gives me a look of displeasure when she mentions his name, "I've spoken to him about it, I don't think I've ever been so angry with him, honestly."

"You didn't have too, and you have nothing to be sorry for."

We stand there awkwardly for a moment, until Hermione finally decides to talk again.

"How is he?" I can tell that she feels uncomfortable asking, but I know she's only asking for my sake.

"He's asleep."

She nods, it's wasn't a proper answer but she doesn't bother pushing me.

"I don't mean to be rude, but do you mind if I go to my common room now? I just have a lot to think about." I ask.

"Oh yeah, sure," She steps out of my way, "But, Jasmine, I really am sorry."

I nod and walk away, back to the common room.

It's late afternoon, there's not many people in here, which I'm quite grateful for. I take a seat on the black leather sofa by the window and look out at the bottom of the black lake. You can never really see anything from these windows; the water's always too dark and filled with dirt floating around. All I've seen is strange looking sea snails stuck to the glass, but I swear one time, in first year, I saw a Selkie that saw me an threatened me through the window with her trident. I may be making that up though, but I remember telling people about it.

Hours tick by as I sit by the window and continue to do absolutely nothing. I don't know what to do with myself.

"Draco's awake." I hear a voice from behind me say. I turn to see Blaise, he doesn't look as happy as usual.

I get up from seat, quickly, "Really?"

He nods, "He's asking for you."

I stand there for a moment to take in Blaise's expression. Then just as I start to walk away I hear him begin to speak to me.

"Why are you with him?"

I turn around and meet his eyes as he stares straight at me.

"Me and you, I swear we use to have something. After the Yule Ball I thought-" He cuts himself off, "I don't know." He finishes his sentence differently to the way he'd first planned.

"Blaise, you know that I love you, but it's not like that. It's never been like that."

"I'm sorry; I'm not why I thought what I thought. I knew you wanted to be friends but I think I always assumed that we'd, I don't know, end up together." He looks sad but immediately tries to save himself by saying, "Now go, Draco needs you."

It's probably bad for me leave him like this, but he's told me go, so what can I do?

Blaise turns to walk away before I start to leave, I walk to the door but once I'm out I run all the way to the hospital wing.

"Draco!" I call once I'm at the entrance, still running to get to him. I come to his bedside and go straight to his lips, kissing him as he kisses me back. Only Madam Promfrey is there, but I guess it doesn't matter now anyway.

"I'm glad you're okay," I say, pulling away and taking a seat on the chair next to him.

"Nobody's killing me off, especially, Potter, trust me," he says, taking my hand in his own.

Madam Pomfrey stands next to me before she begins to speak to Draco, "You'll have stay here a couple days longer, Mr. Malfoy, but I'm sure you'll be fine now that you have company again." She looks at our hands before smiling down at me. "Visiting hours are closed now but I'll let you stay a little while longer if you wish." She smiles once more before walking away, leaving the two of us alone.

"How do you feel?" I ask Draco, he's focused on our hands.

"I'm okay. Snape healed me up pretty well. You were there weren't you? I vaguely remember through the pain of it, unless my minds playing tricks on me."

"Yeah, I was there." I ponder telling him about me leaving and having my 'chat' with Harry, but I think better of it and leave it how it is.

"I've got scars. Madam Pomfrey says they will fade a bit but they're permanent."

I look at his chest covered by the sheets and his shirt, he catches me and asks, "Do you want to see?"

I nod, I'm scared to find out what they look like but I'll have to find out sooner or later anyway.

Draco drops my hand and pushes the sheet down before proceeding to unbutton his shirt. He opens it up to reveal 3 large, fresh, red scars fixed on his torso. These scars have just added more damage to the boy who was already damaged enough. I reach out my hand and gently graze over the top of one, Draco winces and I immediately retract from him. I can't help but feel dejected as I look over them more. I hate what is happening to him, I can't bear to watch him be demolished a little day by day.

"It's fine," He says to me. I then realize that's there's tears running down my cheeks. It's not fine.

I sit and watch as Draco does his buttons back up, covering the scars once again.

"Did she see your mark?" I can't help but ask.

His eyes dart over me as if he's mentally screaming. "No, of course she didn't. Snape made sure of it."

"Snape knows?"

He seems slightly panicked as he fumbles for his own words. "He- well- yes- he knows… But it's fine, just don't worry about it. It's probably time for you to leave I'd imagine." He avoids my eyes.

I'm a little thrown off by his sudden comment, but I don't argue with him. I stand up from my chair.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" I try to make it a statement but it comes out more like a question.

"Yeah," Draco answers me quickly before glancing over at me then looking away again.

"Okay, see you then." I begin to walk out of the room, hoping for a reply but nothing comes.


	16. Chapter 16

The following day consists of normal lessons, none of which I want to be in right now.

When lunch finally arrives I'm happy to just sit in the great hall, alone. I was questioning whether to visit Draco, but after yesterday I can't seem to bring myself to do that.

As I sit and stare blankly at the table in front of me, I feel something hit me and fall onto the bench next to me. I immediately look up to see my owl, Nor flying out of the hall once again. To my right there is a letter, I can only assume who it is from.

 _Dear Jasmine Gold,_

 _I'm happy I received your letter. I apologise for my lack of communication about this, but yes, as you already know we are moving. However, when I say we I mean your father and I. We have had a serious talk and have decided that you are more than capable of fending for yourself after this school year is over. We know that you are a bright, independent young witch so we are not worried at all._

 _We have sold the house to a lovely young muggle couple who are expecting a baby very soon. This does mean that you will have to find alternate living arrangement, but I know you have many friends so this shouldn't be a problem._

 _Your father and I are moving to Barcelona in 2 months, so this is enough time for us to help you with any moving issues you may acquire._

 _Speak soon, Nancy Gold._

What?! This is utter bullshit!

I slam the letter down onto the table as I see people looking at me, only now have I realised that I said my last comment out loud.

"What!" I shout into the general area of the people who are staring.

"Whoa, what's got you wand in a knot?" Dean appears at my side.

I push the letter into his direction without saying a word.

It takes him only a few moments to understand what I'm angry about.

"They're moving without you?" He states the obvious of the letter.

"Yeah, and to bloody Barcelona," I state it too.

He's still scanning the letter as he continues to speak to me, "What are you going to do?"

"Kill my parents," I say completely seriously, Dean laughs. "No, I think I'll have to talk to Ana, just until I find somewhere better."

"Well, you could always stay with me."

I shake my head, "No, I don't want to be living right next door, and watching this stupid new couple re-vamp _my_ home. Having their new baby live in _my_ bedroom. Thanks Dean, but I don't think that's the best idea."

He nods, "Well when you put it like that, I understand what you mean. Will Ana be okay with that then?"

"Yeah, she said I could stay whenever at Christmas, so I'm sure the offer still stands. I'll write her tomorrow or something."

I stand outside the hospital wing door, questioning whether to go inside or not. It's quite late, he'll probably be asleep, that's what I think to myself as I start to walk away.

I don't know what I should do anymore; I don't know when Draco has to fulfil his task, I don't know if Harry is ever going to forgive me, I especially don't know what I'm going to do now that my parents are leaving the country.

I have to go back and see him; I have to talk him about all of this.

I wander back to the hospital wing again and this time I open the door, but nobody's inside. All the beds are empty. What? I head for the common; it seems like the next best place.

I walk in; it's fairly packed in here.

"Have you seen Draco?" I ask a boy I know from the Quidditch team.

He shakes his head, "No, sorry."

A girl from Divination class, "Do you know where Draco is?"

"Sorry I don't."

A group of 5th years on around the coffee table, "Have any of you seen Draco around?"

They all shake their heads. Where the hell is he?

Tonight can't be the night. I can't be. He would have said something I'm sure of it. But what if it is? Where would he be now? Where is it happening?

My mind swims with these unanswered questions, I can't help but feel a sense of panic as they do. There are too many people in here, I have to get out.

I frantically push my way back out of the common room and into the hall, I run up staircases and through corridors, open classroom doors along the way. I can't find anyone anywhere. I find myself outside Dumbledore office, I knock but there's no reply. I turn the handle and it opens, odd, I'm sure Dumbledore would have locked it. There's no one in here either, not Dumbledore, not anyone. Oh god, what if it's happened already?

I step back out and head down the corridor once again. I then here a crashing noise, it's not too loud but just clear enough for me to figure out where it's coming from. The astronomy tower.

I run for what seems like forever to reach the tower, I don't know what I'm expecting or what my plan is when I reach it though.

As I'm close I hear a voice, is that, Draco?

I run to the bottom of the tower and I see Harry. He's standing, looking up at the scene above him. As I take a step forward he's dart towards me. He gives me a harsh look but doesn't say a word as he looks back up. I come to his side to see what he's looking at, sure enough there's Draco and Dumbledore.

I watch Draco, I can see him shaking. Dumbledore is speaking and Draco looks on the verge of tears.

"I was chosen!" He shouts, lifting up his sleeve to reveal his dark mark

I look at Harry, but he doesn't look at me, I understand why.

As I watch the boy I love in pain, being forced to do something like this, my heart aches.

I can see the tears in his eyes now, as he shakes uncontrollably, "Don't you understand?" He begins, "I have to do this, I have to kill you. Or he's gonna kill me."

I fall back onto the wall behind me, it's like the words physically hit me. Why him? Why did he have to be the one?

I hear many footsteps from above. More people have joined them, deatheaters.

I don't know what to do; I know there's really nothing I can do anyway.

Suddenly Snape appears next to Harry; he eyes us both and puts a finger to his lips silencing us from questioning him or making any noise at all.

Snape knows about Draco, he's in on it all too. Everything makes sense now, that day in detention, I can understand it all. But then, it means that Snape is still on the dark side, still with Voldemort He's-

"Avada kedavra!"

I hear the words that snap me out of my thoughts. I stand up straight to see Snape holding a wand, not Draco. Relief flushes through me for a moment until I realise what has happened.

The death eater all run down the stairs, Snape and Draco included. Before I know it, Harry is running after them all. I can't help but follow suit.

We run; there are voices shouting and I can't comprehend anything. Once again, tears are now streaming down my cheeks, making it near impossible to see ahead of me. I follow the voices and footsteps as I run further.

I wipe my eyes as I slow down. Harry is visible in front of me, along with the deatheaters further on.

A scream comes and Hagrid's hut is in flames.

I spot Draco as he turns from the fire. His eyes catch mine and I can see the sorrow in them.

"Go!" Snape directs him.

He looks at me one last time before turning away to walk with the deatheaters.

I see Snape look at me, and I know it's wise for me too to leave.

I step backwards slowly, taking in the scenes in front of me, before turning and running away for good.

There is a crowd of people as I enter the castle grounds. I push my way through to the front and there's the outcome of what I just witnessed. Dumbledore lays motionless on the ground, nobody says a word. I stand with Dean behind me; his hand is placed on my shoulder for comfort.

After what seems like an eternity, Harry arrives too, pushing his own way to the front and collapsing next to the Head Master. His shoulders shake as he silently cries over his body; Ginny appears by his side to comfort him. I glance back at Dean momentarily; he doesn't seem to care for her like he use too.

As I look up to the sky, the dark mark is there, staring down and mocking the scene in front of us all.

From the corner of my eye I see McGonagall raise her wand into the air, a small light glows from the top of it. I watch as others around me do the same, so do I. As we all shine the lights at the dark mark looming over our heads, a hole burns through the centre of it, extinguishing it from the inside out. The wands are raised until the light intensifies and completely dissolves the mark from the sky.

Our wands lower slowly as eyes fall back upon Harry, Ginny and Dumbledore in the centre of the crowd. Words could not explain the mood in the air; it's just too dark to even comprehend.


	17. Chapter 17

The rest of school is different, nobody makes much of an effort to work, learn or even do anything remotely active.

Dumbledore's funeral is tomorrow, I've decided not to attend. Ana has told me I can stay with her and I'll be leaving today. I'm making my own way there as well, I'm flying once again but my trunk and owl has already been sent over, all I'm left with is a small bag of which contains things that I'm not sure I even need.

I make my way to the great hall; most people seem to be congregating there nowadays. My eyes meet Harry's, but he looks away almost instantly. We haven't spoken a signal word to each other since that night.

I see Dean and Seamus and the usher me over to sit with them.

"Are you sure you won't come?" Dean asks me about Dumbledore's funeral for the one millionth time.

"No, I can't."

"It's not your fault you know; don't beat yourself up about this, please." He says, I don't reply.

"Are you coming back next year?" Seamus asks me.

I shrug, I'm not sure anymore. My minds been changed so much this year that I don't know what's best for me. I'd love to come back and be here with my friends, but now there are just too many bad memories. "I don't know." I don't give the long explanation to Seamus.

"Seamus!" Someone calls from down the hall.

He looks up and puts his thumb up, "I have to go, I'll see you soon, Jas. Yeah?"

I nod and give him a small hug before he runs off.

I turn to Dean.

"Have you spoken to Draco?" He asks, he's the only one who dares to bring him up.

I dig through the small bag and produce a piece of parchment; I lazily toss it onto the table in front of Dean.

 _'Trust Me. I love you._

 _Draco.'_

"Did you send anything back?"

I shake my head, no.

Dean passes the note back to me and look over it once more before shoving it into my bag again.

"You'll keep in touch won't you, with me?" He takes my hands in his.

"I always will, I promise." I give him a small smile.

He smiles back at me before we both stand up. He holds onto one of my hands over the table and leads me to the end of it. We're by the entrance of the hall; he stands in front of me my hand still in his.

"I'll miss you." He says to me.

I drop his hand and pull him into a hug, his arms wrap around me as if he'll never see me again. But to be honest, I'm not sure when the next time will be.

We pull away from each other and stand at a comfortable distance.

"I'll see you soon." I say and smile.

He nods and smiles back.

I then turn away and walk out the hall, not knowing when I'll return again.


End file.
